An inside look into Auburn’s RFID Lab

“We’re doing innovation,” said Justin Patton, executive director of Auburn’s world-renowned RFID Lab. Then he stops himself. “A better word, really, is transformation.”

He makes a good point: RFID (an acronym for Radio Frequency Identification) has existed for decades. Allied forces used the technology in WWII to identify whether incoming airplanes were friendly or enemies. But the lab’s student workers, alongside its faculty and staff, are transforming and improving the ways in which tracking technology is used in industries like retail and aviation.

You likely interact with RFID all the time, whether you’re aware of it or not. If you’ve been to the grocery store, tracked your pet, used an E-Z pass on a toll road, or even competed in a race, you’ve encountered the technology.

RFID uses radio frequency waves to wirelessly transfer data and identify and track “tags” that are attached to objects.

It’s made major waves in the retail industry by streamlining inventory tracking, preventing theft and providing insight into potential trends. A store associate armed with a “reader” can track hundreds of tagged products in seconds from yards away, as well as provide data on which products are most often shoplifted.

“Giving something a name or identity that didn’t have a name or identity is important because it makes that thing important,” said Patton. “Once we give each individual thing a name, it gives it value.”

An RFID tag is essentially a barcode with fewer restrictions. Unlike a barcode, you don’t need to actually see the tag to scan it, which saves a ton of time on inventory management.

But RFID’s influence goes way beyond the retail industry: farmers use RFID-equipped ear tags to keep an eye on their cattle. Airlines use it for everything from refreshment-cart maintenance to baggage tracking. Medical professionals use it to manage medication inventories.

As you read this, Auburn’s RFID Lab is currently developing new uses and tracking methods. The possibilities are endless.

Cattle Call

Tagging
Livestock is tagged with a small RFID tag containing a unique identifier. Tags can be attached to the ear, neck or leg of the animal.

Identification
RFID readers installed in various locations like gates, feeders and milking stations emit radio waves that interact with the RFID tags on the cattle. This allows for quick identification of individual animals and their movements.

Monitoring
RFID technology enables farmers and ranchers to track important data about each animal, including health records, feeding schedules, breeding history and vaccination status.

Traceability
In addition to daily livestock management, RFID tags allow food to be tracked after it leaves the farm and throughout the supply chain, helping to assure food safety and quality.

Working with the Fortune 500

Patton has been with the RFID Lab, originally located at The University of Arkansas, since its inception in 2005 and has witnessed its development firsthand. “RFID in 2005 was kind of like AI in 2024,” he said. “That was the buzz at that time.”

As a graduate student studying computer engineering, one of his professors was Bill Hardgrave. While Hardgrave is considered something of an Auburn icon (he oversaw major growth as the Harbert College of Business during his tenure as dean), he was also quite successful during his time at Arkansas.

Hardgrave founded and directed the Arkansas RFID Lab until he left for Auburn in 2010, installing Patton at the helm. Later, a financial gift from Raymond Harbert ’82 allowed the whole operation to move to Auburn in 2014.

“I’m an Arkansas grad, but this was a step up for us and we were very lucky to make that move,” said Patton.

The lab, located inside a sprawling former Bruno’s grocery store on Glenn Avenue, almost looks like a vintage movie studio. The space is separated into a group of sets (smaller operating labs) that are dedicated to different purposes. There’s a mock retail store where students test inventory tracking processes, and an imitation Delta terminal and plane (with legitimate airplane seats, to boot). In the back is a sensory-free room worthy of science fiction movies—complete with blue padded walls—that enables researchers to test RFID tags in a completely controlled environment.

The RFID Lab conducts research in four major industries with four major partners: Delta, UPS, McDonald’s and Walmart, which is one of the lab’s oldest partners.

“If you want to put somebody to sleep, you start talking to them about inventory,” joked Patton. “I think it’s boring because it’s fundamental. You assume you know what you have.”

Once you see a student worker use a handheld reader to identify hundreds of products in seconds, it becomes a lot more fascinating. The now-essential resource saves workers hours of painstaking itemizing, prevents theft and provides customers with a better shopping experience.

Delta’s $6.2 million gift to Auburn in 2017 not only funded the university’s aviation building, it also provided research funding for the RFID Lab. In the seven years since, student researchers have polished and refined tag capabilities that allow flight attendants to track a plane’s food and beverage inventory, and airline workers to track checked luggage—a long-overdue development for anyone who’s ever “lost” their luggage on a flight.

And then there’s UPS, the lab’s major package logistics partner. As far as that goes, “everyone wants to know where their packages are,” according to Patton. “This makes that information faster and more accurate.”

The lab’s partnership with McDonald’s helps the restaurant chain improve their operational flow while enhancing ingredient traceability and visibility. The Food Safety Modernization Act requires U.S. food manufacturers to digitally track their products for recalls and food safety, and RFID is a significant enabler.

The food space is new ground for the RFID team, but Patton is excited about the potential for more supply chain transformation, not to mention the sustainability benefits the research will bring. RFID tags make ingredients traceable, eliminating the need to oversaturate the supply chain with food products that will either rot on store shelves or get thrown away at home.

“We throw away like 20 or 30 percent of what goes through the food supply chain,” Patton said. “Isn’t that crazy? This is one of those rare instances where a good business win aligns with better efficiency, better sustainability and less waste.”

As much as has already been accomplished, you can expect a lot more innovation on the horizon—not only in Auburn, but around the world.

In April 2024, the lab announced a major partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico to promote RFID and to enhance collaboration in research, education and workforce development via the Weapons Production–Technology and Nuclear Training Program.

“The WP-TNT partnership with LANL will advance RFID technology for precision location systems, and hopefully open up many paths of opportunity for Auburn students to work with a premier government technology lab,” Patton said in a news release.

Meanwhile, Switzerland-based semiconductor manufacturer EM Microelectronic joined the lab’s advisory board in April. This relationship will open up new research opportunities, particularly in the Bluetooth space.

Corporate Partners Using RFID

Students as Partners

“We very much rely on our students. They are our partners in this,” said Jade Bruce ’15, the RFID Lab operations manager who the student workers lovingly refer to as their “work mom.” She’s not wrong—students from a variety of majors are hands-on collaborators, researchers and even presenters at the Auburn lab.

Emma Rhyne ’24, a recently graduated senior who served as laboratory technician and team lead, earned two bachelor’s degrees—one in psychology and one in law and justice. She says her hands-on experience in the RFID Lab prepared her for law school, which she plans to attend in the fall.

“Working here has really broadened my horizons to how technology can impact all other types of fields,” Rhyne said. “Now I’m considering going into technology law or patent law because of the things I’ve been able to see at the lab and how RFID goes into everything. This is such a new and emerging field, the law will have to follow along with that. So who better to go into that type of thing than someone who has experience with it?”

Margo Lewis, a junior, said her experience on the BUZZ Team (a team of students focused on advancing the lab’s communications and marketing efforts) is setting her up for a successful career in public relations and marketing.

“Since I started working at the lab, I really didn’t know what area of PR I wanted to go into,” said Lewis. “At the lab, I’ve been able to hone in on a lot of skills that are super transferable. I applied for this job because I thought if I could apply for a job about a technology I’ve never heard of and find a way to communicate and market that effectively, then I can do anything.”

Sophomore Josie Stough, also a marketing major, agrees. “When most people think about marketing, they think about flashy advertisements about sports or fashion—but when you learn how to market something as simple as a tag, not only to our partners but to our students, you can market anything, really.”

And then there’s Brandon Huff, a freshman who plans to go into supply chain management. Huff was a junior at Auburn High School when some older friends who worked at the lab invited him to help out at the 2021 graduation—because Auburn’s graduation ceremonies are yet another aspect of everyday life that is touched by RFID. Graduating students are given an RFID tag that displays their name on the screen as they cross the stage. After assisting at previous graduations, Huff ran the show for the May 2024 Auburn commencement.

“[Working here] has helped me out in terms of team building and learning how to work on a team, but it’s also given me a huge technological advantage. It has taught me how to solve a lot of problems on my own,” said Huff. “Being at the lab forces you to come up with solutions. It has taught me how to be intuitive.”

A New Kind of Educational Experience

Patton, who was a student himself when the lab started at The University of Arkansas in 2005, believes students are capable of way more than most people give them credit for. He expects a lot from the students who work in the lab, and they’re often rewarded in the end. Graduating students are frequently hired by the lab’s corporate partners.

“I’m very proud that we impact a lot of students who are able to start their own careers, build their networks and fund their education along the way by the very people they’re going to eventually go out and work for.”

“Education’s changing, and college won’t be the same as it has been,” he said. “I think it’s going to become more like what happens here, where we’re doing experiential learning, working with outside companies and helping with the hiring cycle.”

As the 20th century advanced, so did RFID. By 1973, the technology was officially patented by an entrepreneur who used the tags to unlock doors without keys. The rest, as they say, is history. Or at Auburn, the future.