Workshops

With conference admission, you get complimentary access to these great workshops. Each workshop provides 3 IEEE Professional Development Hours.

Workshop 1: Chipless RFID Sensors: Challenges and Breakthroughs

Organized by Emran Md Amin and Nemai Chandra Karmakar, Monash University (Australia)

Considered as the foundation for Internet of things (IoT) and Smart Cities, RFID sensors ubiquitously collect tagged objects’ identification and sensing information. Although ‘chip based’ RFID sensing is used in industrial process, supply chain management and biomedical applications, their operations are limited by on-board chip and low resilience in harsh environments and weather conditions. Alternatively, fully printable chipless RFID sensors can overcome the cost and application barriers of traditional sensors. There have been remarkable advancements in passive electromagnetic sensing based on smart materials, microwave passive design and fabrication processes. However, due to a number of developmental challenges chipless RFID sensors are yet to be materialized in real world applications for ubiquitous sensing. Particularly, researchers have experienced fundamental challenges in realizing such low cost pervasive sensors in areas of reading range and reading accuracy, orientation and position of sensors, dynamic range, sensitivity, sensing material characterization and finally, complete sensor tag and reader development in low cost formats. In this regard, innovations are required in smart reader protocol, propagation issues, receiver sensitivity, smart materials characterization and fabrication processes.

The aim of this workshop is to create a platform for interactive discussion between leading experts and researchers in the areas of chipless RFID tags, readers, smart sensing materials and fabrication processes. Speakers will explore state-of-the –art chipless RFID sensor research to identify challenges in implementing fully printable, wireless passive sensors in real world applications. Moreover, an overview of current development and future direction of chipless RFID sensor research will be presented.

Speakers:

  • Christian Mandel (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany) – Overcoming Channel Limitations of Chipless RFID Sensors: Clutter Suppression and Multiple Access Schemes
  • Arnaud Vena (Université Montpellier 2, France) – A Low-Cost Realization Process, and a Reliable Detection System to Make Chipless RFID Sensor Technology Ubiquitous.
  • Manos M. Tentzeris (Georgia Tech, USA) – Inkjet-Printed RFID-Enabled Wireless Sensors
  • Emran Md Amin (Monash University, Australia) – Chipless RFID Sensors: From Theory to Realization
  • Herve Aubert (Lab for Analysis and Arch. of Systems CNRS, France) – Wireless Reading and Identification of Passive Millimeterwave Sensors: Challenges and Solutions”
  • Zhongyang Cheng (Auburn University, USA) – Wireless and Chipless Sensors for Biological and Physical Detection

 

Workshop 2: RFID, Wireless Sensing, and IOT in Industrial Environments

Organized by James Jobin, GE Global Research (USA)

Today, Industrial Internet, Machine to Machine (M2M), Internet of Things (IoT) are not just buzzwords but something that is rapidly becoming a reality. The Internet of Things world has seen a tremendous amount of progress but most of this is from the consumer-oriented perspective. For instance, we have seen the advent of smart phones, TVs, watches, appliances, cars, etc. More and more consumer devices are getting connected to the Internet of Things. On the other hand, the industrial sector has not seen a similar level of innovation and activity. There are some initiatives such as GE’s Industrial Internet, IBM’s Smarter Planet, Cisco’s Internet of Things, etc. that are gaining momentum, but, overall, the pace of growth is slower than that in the consumer IoT world.

The industrial sector is equally interesting from the point of view of the world economy but the challenges can be quite different as compared to those in a consumer world. The aim of this workshop is to explore these differences. We would like to generate a healthy discussion about IoT challenges in the industrial sector, and bring focus to the similarities and differences vis-à-vis the consumer IoT world, the implications of issues such as big data, latency, privacy, etc. in the industrial sector, key enablers that can accelerate the growth of IoT in the industrial sector, etc.

Speakers:

  • James Jobin (GE Global Research, USA) – RFID and IoT – Anecdotes, Benefits, and Challenges
  • Rodrigo G. Alonso (Zebra Technologies, USA) – Influence of Consumer Technologies on RFID, Location, and Sensing in Industrial Settings
  • Jerry Finley (SICK Inc, USA) – UHF RFID in Automotive Manufacturing
  • Lynn DeRose (GE Global Research, USA) – Enabling Distributed Intelligent Systems using RFID
  • Kyle Reissner (GE Intelligent Platforms, USA) – The Information Conundrum – How to Make Your Water & Wastewater Data Count
  • George E. Daddis Jr. (CEO of Omni-ID, USA) – Applications of Visual Electronic Tagging in Manufacturing and Industrial Logistics