November 2006

IEEE Member Panel Surveyed on RFID

By Emily Sopensky

IEEE members take note: Your mega-organization recently increased its activities in radio frequency identification (RFID) with a multi-pronged approach.

Reflecting the fragmented nature of the RFID technologies industry, as well as research and development, IEEE interest in RFID is found in pockets among technical societies, such as Communications, Computer and Microwave Theory & Techniques.

At the urging of IEEE-USA Vice President for Technology Policy Activities Russell Lefevre, the IEEE's New Technology Directions Committee (NTDC) adopted RFID as one of its two new groups in 2006. Under the auspices of the Technical Acitivies Board, NTDC is led for the third year by Dr. John Reagan of the University of Arizona. The Committee serves as a focal point for fostering and seeding promising new technologies, such as digital intellectual property and biotech and bioengineering. Richard Cox and Mark Karol, both IEEE division directors, co-chairs the RFID Group.

The IEEE's interest in RFID grew primarily from the white paper that IEEE-USA released early this year (available from the website). This effort recognized that the United States has much to learn from Asia and Europe in terms of RFID. As a consultant for Texas Instruments (TI) in the late nineteen-nineties, I saw that the interest in RFID was very pragmatic in Europe and Asia. Whereas, in the United States, interest was sporadic, as were applications using RFID. One of TI's first uses of the technology to gain popularity was in asset identification and inventorying in the Netherlands. Tags for pigs, a staple food in northern Europe, stored information about the pig's provenance, diet and marketability. Data could be read simply by waving a handheld over the pig while still in his pen. Other applications ranged from vehicle tracking to baggage handling.

To gain a better understanding of the IEEE membership's involvement in RFID, a statistically sound sampling of IEEE members was queried. Conducted by IEEE Corporate Strategy and Communications in June as part of its bimonthly Pulse survey, a panel of 500 current members was asked what their involvement is, if any, in RFID. Half those surveyed responded, a good rate of return. The panel comprises members at all levels and ages.

Marc Beebe, Manager, Strategic Research and Planning, reported that one-third of those responding had some familiarity with RFID, but less than five percent considered themselves "very familiar," even though eight percent said they worked with RFID. Roughly two-thirds wanted to know more about RFID — approximately the same percentage who have learned about RFID from popular media. Less than three percent said that they have contributed to a paper on RFID.

The action plan for the NTDC RFID Group, adopted in June, proposes that a conference on RFID be held. In response, IEEE's first technical conference dedicated to RFID will be held 26-28 March 2007 in Grapevine, Texas. The conference is financially co-sponsored by IEEE-USA, NTDC and Region 5, and the vice chair is Paul Hartmann, VP Engineering, RF Saw, Inc. in Dallas.

The conference program chair is Professor Daniel Engels, whose work on Auto-ID in healthcare at MIT has led to the current interest in the Food & Drug Administration in ePedigrees and the use of RFID technologies to provide end-to-end documentation on a drug's provenance. Now the director of the University of Texas at Arlintgon's RFID Center, Dr. Engels is recognized globally.

The conference is being co-located with a major RFID trade show, RFID World 2007, in Grapevine, Texas (close to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport). More than 3,500 visited the 200 exhibitors at the trade show last year. The Dallas area is rich in RFID activity, including the famed Wal-Mart trials, and is home to Texas Instruments, a major manufacturer of RFID chips, tags and readers. By co-locating with the trade show, the IEEE RFID 2007 conference hopes to attract many in the industry.

The industry is going through a phase of consolidation as the major players sift through priorities and realign their interests. Those already trained as electrical engineers are well suited for employment in the RFID industry. One of IEEE Educational Partners is the RFID Technical Institute. IEEE members receive discounts on courses offered by partners. See www.ieee.org/web/education/partners/eduPartners.html for more information.

IEEE plans many more RFID-related activities. Please e-mail your specific interests in RFID to Emily Sopensky at e.sopensky@ieee.org.

Emily Sopensky is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a former IEEE Engineering and Diplomacy Fellow assigned to the U.S. Department of State. With respect to RFID, she is actively supporting the IEEE in recognizing this emerging technology, guiding the first IEEE-wide juried conference on RFID in March 2007; the new U.S. Senate RFID Caucus formed in July 2006; and other IEEE-related projects on RFID. She led the IEEE-USA team that wrote the white paper on RFID (now available from IEEE-USA) and the organization's position statement. She chairs the IEEE-USA Committee on Communications & Technology Policy. Comments may be submitted to e.sopensky@ieee.org or todaysengineer@ieee.org.