Sanjay E. Sarma, MIT

How is your organization involved with RFID technology?

The Auto-ID Labs are a research wing of EPCglobal. They emerged from the Auto-ID Center, a group of research institutions with headquarters at MIT. Sister labs are located at Cambridge University, ETH Zurich, the University of St. Gallen, Fudan University (Shanghai), Keio University (Tokyo) and the University of Adelaide (Australia). The Auto-ID labs created the EPC suite of technologies that are now administered by EPCglobal.

Why did you get involved in RFID technology?

I got involved in 1998. At that time, passive RFID tags cost upwards of 1 dollar. I started doing research in the development of low-cost RFID with my colleague at MIT, David Brock. Eventually, P&G, Gillette and the UCC helped fund the Auto-ID Center, and Kevin Ashton of P&G came on as the executive director.

What are your main projects in RFID?

At the Auto-ID Center, we started with research in hardware, protocols, tag manufacturing, readers, software and applications. Since then, we have expanded our research significantly.

What is your vision for RFID in the future?

RFID will become ubiquitous in our lives. We will see it in industry, at home, in grocery stores, in hospitals -- so much so that we will use it silently. For example, when we buy meat in a few years, we will look for an EPC mark on it just as we look for an "organic" mark today. The EPC mark will assure us that the meat has been kept in appropriately cooled environments, that it hasn't been recalled, and that the country of origin is what we expect it to be. We will seek similar assurances with pharmaceuticals. Our cars will detect our presence, and seats and temperatures will adjust to our preferences. And so on.

What is the Internet of Things? Does the final consumer have a role in shaping the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things refers to continuous, automatic connections between the computer world and the physical world in a way that has not been possible so far. The consumer will be the linchpin in this connection, with the most important applications – ranging from smart fridges to personal inventory systems.

What is the level of research interest in RFID? Has there been an increase in interest from the young academic world?

I get numerous emails from around the world from smart young students with interesting ideas about how to use RFID.

Is RFID an elitist theme, or is it being democratized at the university level?

Just as computing and the Internet are fundamentally democratised, RFID is destined for the masses. Its future will be shaped by everyone around the world – people in companies and universities as well as individual consumers.

What would you say to a first year college student to get them involved in RFID?

I’d say this is a simple building-block technology and you could be the next Bill Gates.

What is the role of academia in contributing greater level of awareness?
The role of academia is to create the tools and to overcome the barriers to making this a fundamentally democratic technology. Once we have the "legos" firmly defined, worldwide creativity can be unleashed.

The EPCglobal Network was developed at the Auto-ID Center at MIT in Cambridge, MA, one of the world’s leading universities.