Students Featured at RFID Trade Show

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U of A students demonstrating uses for RFID technology

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Students from the RFID Research Center in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas got a chance to show off what they know at the industry’s largest trade show – RFID Journal LIVE! 2013, in Orlando, Fla.

It turns out they know quite a lot.

“Students from our center performed on-floor demonstrations of the many different uses of RFID,” said Justin Patton, the research center’s managing director. “They did an outstanding job and are considered the very best resource in the industry for introducing new users to RFID.”

Radio frequency identification, or RFID, uses a wireless system to transmit data from tags on products to a receiver for the purpose of identifying and tracking the product through the supply chain.

The students impressed the show’s organizers so much that RFID Journal posted an online video showing the U of A students in action. “This short video showcases the students’ demos, and the excellent response they received,” Patton said.

Aaron Vasgaard from the RFID Research Center organized the sessions, and each of the students – Samantha Chandler, Michael Edwards and Jeremiah Harpool – scripted their individual demonstrations. The students presented the demonstrations several times over the three days of the conference. 

“Sam, Michael, and Jeremiah are one-year veterans of the RFID center, and Aaron is coming up on the end of his first year as a full-time staff member,” Patton said. “Aaron and his team represent the college for our visitors every day. The trade show allowed them to show their external work as ambassadors as well.”

At the trade show, the students made several demonstrations, including how serialized data can be written to RFID transponders on items; how RFID can be used to alert workers about problems with inventory management; how retailers can use RFID to quickly find a specific item – the right color, size and fit – for a customer; and how RFID can be used to reduce theft and identify stolen items.

More than 30 industry-leading companies joined forces with the U of A in 2005 to found the RFID Research Center as part of the Information Technology Research Institute in the Walton College.