December
20, 2005
Oakton and Stratum Global Announce RFID Lab
Industry Leaders Collaborate to Create Curriculum
Oakton Community College and Stratum Global, based in Littleton, Colorado, announce the first collegiate hands-on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) lab, to be created at Oakton's new Art, Science, and Technology Pavilion at the Ray Hartstein Campus in Skokie. Stratum Global, in conjunction with William Frick, Intel, and Intermec Technologies Corp., is providing Oakton with the tools required to develop an RFID lab and curriculum that will give students the opportunity to study the dynamics of how RFID infrastructure, readers, tags, and software logic solve business problems.
"As RFID continues to emerge, Chicago and suburban businesses will need employees with tangible skills in this growing field," said Robert Sompolski, acting dean, Mathematics and Technology, Oakton Community College. "Oakton's objective in this partnership is to prepare students for RFID opportunities in the workplace. Our lab will give students experience in working directly with software, tags, readers, and infrastructure gaining knowledge to implement a full-scale RFID project. Students will not only learn the technology, but also be able to communicate the business value of an RFID implementation."
Stratum Global's TagNet® RFID solution suite will serve as the software application foundation for understanding the integration components and the dynamics between the infrastructure, tags and readers. Students will use the software to manage and configure readers, conduct remote diagnostics, commission and interrogate tags, verify tag reads against existing enterprise data and create rules to establish application level events.
William Frick, based in Libertyville, Illinois, specializes in tag and labeling solution offerings. Frick will assist in developing the tag curriculum as it relates to tag materials, tags for high impact or rugged environments, application of active or passive tags, high visibility tags as well as tagging location. Frick will provide the lab with a variety of tag types for the students to work with on different materials, in multiple scenarios. Students will have a firm understanding of the differences between tags types, where those types are applicable and how to effectively construct a tagging methodology.
Enterprise data will reside on an Intel® based P4 and Xeon Server infrastructure. Data will be used to commission tags, construct work rules and manage events. Stratum Global's TagNetŪ will ensure a seamless flow of data within the RFID environment, between the Intermec Readers, antennas, tags and the Intel® platform.
RFID hardware will be provided by Intermec and will include Intermec's IF5® fixed readers, IP3® portable readers, and a combination of Intermec Intellitag® antennas. Students will use the hardware to understand how physical readers, handhelds and antennas are used to develop portals, and how portal development impacts read rates and the dynamics of hardware configuration. The hardware and curriculum will prepare students for careers in RFID, with a firm understanding of the technology required for a successful implementation and how that implementation can bring continuous process improvement to the business.
"Oakton's RFID lab and curriculum will have significant impact on many levels within the college, the community, and the business world," said Bill Hood, chief operating officer, Stratum Global. "Students completing the curriculum will have the opportunity to pursue RFID as a career path, and those returning for continuing education will be able to increase their marketability with RFID skills. Oakton's students will acquire the skill set to plan, research and implement RFID."
"We are pleased to be working with companies of such a high caliber in establishing this program," Sompolski added. "Given their professional expertise we have great confidence that our students will leave Oakton well prepared for careers in supply chain logistics using RFID."
For more information about Oakton's new RFID lab and training curriculum, contact Robert Sompolski at 847-635-1975 or somplski@oakton.edu.
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