Where Can I Study RFID So I Can Get a Suitable Job With a Solutions Provider?

The Auto-ID Labs have established operations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the United States; the University of Cambridge, in England; ETH Zurich and the University of St. Gallen, in Switzerland; Fudan University, in China; the University of Adelaide, in Australia; and the Keio Research Institute, in Japan. Students can work in these labs, conducting primary research as part of their curriculum.

The University of Arkansas is the site of the RFID Research Center, which was set up under the university's Information Technology Research Institute. Students studying business, computers and other disciplines can work in the lab and attain hands-on experience.

The University of Pennsylvania has set up an RFID Center of Excellence within its Swanson School of Engineering. The center teaches RFID as part of a wireless computer networks class.

The University of Washington runs the RFID Ecosystem project, funded by the National Science Foundation. Students here can participate in a variety of RFID-related research projects.

The University of Houston's RFID Lab is part of that school's C.T. Bauer College of Business. It was created by the university's Department of Decision and Information Sciences (DISC), in conjunction with Research & Instructional Computing Services (RICS) and the Information Systems Research Center (ISRC). The lab is researching RFID security issues, the technology's use with biometrics and other topics.

In addition, other universities have established labs or research efforts at which you can obtain hands-on experience. These include:

• The University of South Florida Polytechnic


• The Georgia Tech Research Institute


• The University of Wisconsin-Madison


• North Dakota State University


• The University of Villanova


• Texas A&M University


• Oakton Community College, in Illinois


• Middlesex Community College, in Massachusetts


• Merrimack College, in Massachusetts


• James Madison University, in Virginia


• Indiana University—Purdue University Fort Wayne


• The Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Science, in China


• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology


• The University of Parma, in Italy


• The University of Bremen, in Germany

You can contact the heads of these labs through their Web sites to find out what opportunities might exist for you.