Laura Reeder 

Posted by RFID Staff on March 22nd, 2024

Meet Laura Reeder! Laura is the newest member of the RFID Lab and is joining the ARC team as a Program Manager. She graduated from UAB in 2011 with a degree in Excercise Science. After working as a Vet Tech, she moved to Auburn in 2014 and joined the School of Veterinary Science as a K9 instructor. There she worked on the Research and Development Team where she trained bomb sniffing dogs.


2024 Source Tagging Workshop 

Posted by RFID Staff on February 15th, 2024

The Auburn RFID Lab is excited to announce the 2024 Source Tagging Workshop! The workshop will be held in Auburn, AL on April 3rd and 4th, 2024. We are so excited to be able to welcome both tag suppliers and end users to this event to learn more about implementing RFID solutions for their businesses!


RFID Student Spotlight: Ann Lilly McDaniel, BUZZ Team Lead

Posted by RFID Staff on February 2nd, 2024

Meet Ann Lilly McDaniel, the team lead for our BUZZ team! Ann Lilly is a senior studying Apparel Merchandising and Supply Chain Management from Florence, Alabama. Ann Lilly has been working at the lab since August 2022. One of her favorite things about working in the lab is the opportunity to learn about retail technology daily!


RFID Crash Course

Posted by RFID Staff on January 26, 2024

RFID. You’ve probably heard the name tossed around, been told to buy a special wallet to stop it, or maybe even seen an RFID tag in a store. But what exactly is RFID? RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. RFID systems are used to transmit data quickly and painlessly. RFID systems are made up of three parts: the tag, the antenna, and the reader. The reader sends out radio waves, which are amplified by the antenna. The radio waves activate the tag, which then broadcasts its data back to the reader.


The Lab in 2024

Posted by RFID Staff on January 19, 2024

As the dust settles from the craziness of the holiday season, its time to start reflecting on the past year, and look forward to what the new year will bring for our lab and RFID technology. Through the end of 2023, there were many exciting events in the lab. Between a visit from Walmart Executives to a lab-wide Christmas party, the hustle and bustle of year-end activities was no stranger to our building. The visit from Walmart allowed us to show the executives not only the progress that the lab has already made in RFID research, but also give them a glimpse into the future of the labs work in supply chain management and inventory tracking solutions.


CHIP Project (Chain Integration Pilot)

Posted by Justin Patton on May 9, 2019
chip header

The Auburn University RFID Lab has publicly announced the CHIP Project, a blockchain proof-of-concept for serialized data exchange in the Retail and Apparel supply chain. CHIP, an acronym for CHain Integration Pilot, will be the first of its kind in the industry, with the goal of integrating item-level data streams from various stakeholders into a blockchain solution, creating a common record of information jointly shared by trade partners that will enable end-to-end visibility and data-driven decision making throughout the value chain.


RFID Lab Joins Hyperledger Collaboration hosted by the Linux Foundation

Posted by Justin Patton on March 27, 2019

The Auburn University RFID Lab is excited to announce its new membership with Hyperledger, a global collaboration hosted by the Linux Foundation that focuses on the advancement of blockchain and DLT technologies. Hyperledger functions as a greenhouse for a series of open source blockchain frameworks with cross-industry applications, ranging from finance and banking to supply chain and logistics. As one of the largest working consortiums of its kind, Hyperledger is comprised of hundreds of contributing organizations such as Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Intel, Oracle, JP Morgan, and many more.


Journal of Business Logistics STF – A Conversation with Yorke Rhodes

Posted by RFID Staff on June 5, 2018

In this webinar, meet Yorke Rhodes, one of the co-founders of Microsoft’s Blockchain initiative, and hear him discuss the process behind the project. Follow along as members of the JBL (Journal of Business Logistics) ask Rhodes about blockchain technology and its implications in various sectors.


Dr. Jian Zhang: First Post-Doc and His Focus on Grant Research

Posted by RFID Staff on May 2, 2017
Dr. Jian Zhang RFID Lab

Pictured above: Doctoral Graduate, Jian Zhang testing his robot, Jianny 5 in the mock retail store in the RFID Lab.


Auburn University RFID Lab’s First Doctoral Student: Jian Zhang

Posted by RFID Staff on April 19, 2017
Jian Zhang RFID Lab

Pictured above: Jian Zhang discussing his work with colleagues at a recent RFID Lab event


Julia Marr: NRF Scholarship Recipient

Posted by RFID Staff on April 11, 2017

Julia Marr, a Junior in Supply Chain Management and a Lab Assistant at the Auburn RFID Lab, received a scholarship from NRF to attend the 2017 conference in NYC.


Who Pays for Retail RFID Tagging?

Posted by Justin Patton on December 13, 2016

Whether the brand buys the tags or the retailer subsidizes tagging, the cost will be absorbed into the cost of the item in the long run. We still have a few apparel retailers ask us about cost of goods increases for RFID tagged items. What many of them don’t realize is that the per-item cost of apparel RFID is quickly becoming independent of whether or not the retailer actually has an RFID program. Unless it’s an exclusive or private label item, retail RFID tagging is fast becoming a standard feature rather than a retailer requested option.


Takeaways from the RFID Lab Open House

Posted by RFID Staff on September 30, 2016
RFID Lab

On September 23rd, the Auburn University RFID Lab hosted an open house and offered an interactive tour of the facility. Visitors of all ages attended out of curiosity and excitement. Many wanted to know what the lab does on a day-to-day basis, while others came to learn the basics of RFID and its applications.


Auburn RFID Lab

Auburn University’s RFID Lab specializes in the business case and technical implementation of radio frequency identification technology in retail, supply chain and manufacturing settings.

In moving to Auburn University in 2014, the lab was reunited with its founder, Harbert College of Business Dean Bill Hardgrave. Hardgrave helped launch the lab at the University of Arkansas in 2005.

The lab has continued to work with leading retail, supply chain, manufacturing and technology companies.