RFID goes to college

RFID appears to be catching on in the college classroom. Bill Hardgrave, director of the RFID Research Center at the University of Arkansas' Sam M. Walton College of Business, says that more than 100 students are involved with RFID studies this semester, up from 80 students last semester.

In fact, Hardgrave reports that a course on RFID business management that was added to the course list just 24 hours before registration quickly filled to capacity. "I think that it's an indication of students' understanding what's happening out there with the technology and wanting to take advantage," he says.

Familiarity with RFID certainly won't hurt their chances of landing a job. Speaking at the RFID Academic Convocation held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January, Robb Clarke, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Michigan State School of Packaging, said some corporate recruiters wouldn't even speak with a job candidate unless the student had taken his class in RFID.