Apr 19, 2010RFID Journal today announced the winners of the 4th annual RFID Journal Awards. The winners honored at last week's RFID Journal LIVE! 2010 are:
• Best RFID Implementation: Minera Norge
• Best Use of RFID in a Product or Service: Almacafé
• Most Innovative Use of RFID: The Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center at the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center
• Special Achievement: Sanjay Sarma
• Best in Show: Impinj
"This year, the many of the projects submitted involved large-scale RFID deployments delivering real value, and the judges were challenged to pick winners," says Mark Roberti, founder and editor of RFID Journal. "The quality of the submissions really show how RFID is evolving and maturing."
A panel of 25 independent judges chose the winners. In each category, at least five judges awarded points based on criteria established by RFID Journal (click here for a list of judges). The main criteria for the awards given to end users were whether the deployment broke new ground and what benefits it delivered to the company. The judges chose 10 finalists for the Best in Show award, and from those 10, the editors of RFID Journal picked the winner.
Minera Norway, a Norwegian slate provider, was chosen for deploying an RFID system that tracks slabs of granite from the quarry, through production and storage and finally to shipping to its customers around the world (see Slate Maker Adopts System to Track Products, Even When Buried Under Snow). The Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center was chosen for an innovative system that combines passive and active RFID technologies for customizing hospital environments to reduce patient anxiety and improve hospital workflows.
Almacafé, the coffee-warehousing subsidiary of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, won for its system of tracking premium coffee beans from the fields through to coffee producers.
Impinj, a provider of RFID chips, readers and reader chips, won the annual Best In Show award for its recently launched Monza 4 family of chips (see Impinj Launches New High-Performance RFID Chips), which have innovative privacy features and the ability to be read regardless of orientation to the interrogator, thanks to their support for two tag antennas.
"It's very exciting to see how the projects submitted are becoming larger and delivering more value," says Roberti. "It's also exciting to see how the technology has improved each year. All 10 Best in Show entries represented significant advances in the RFID market.
In addition, RFID Journal introduced a new award this year to recognize the special achievements of individuals who have contributed to the adoption of RFID technology. The award was given to Sanjay Sarma, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his contribution to the creation of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) and related technologies and his leadership of the Auto-ID Labs.
