Judges

Mr. Hachani is an ITU (international telecommunications union) IoT expert. He is also lecturer in ESPRIT school of engineers -Tunisia and the head of RFID research group team. He is also a visiting lecturer in ENSIM- France, where he launched RFID and IoT courses.

Rich Handley has served as an editor with RFID Journal since 2005 and was named managing editor in 2012. Since then, he has also become the managing editor of IOT Journal, also published by RFID Journal. Rich has served as a judge for the RFID Journal Awards for the past five years. Prior to joining RFID Journal, he worked at several leading trade publications. Rich cofounded independent publisher Hasslein Books in 2008, and is the author or co-author of nine outstanding books to date.

H.D. Lang is a lecturer in the department of electrical engineering at the HSR in Rapperswil, Switzerland, teaching electrical engineering fundamentals, including circuit theory, network analysis, electromagnetics and electromagnetic compatibility. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electromagnetics from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2018. In 2016, he was an Intern with the SEG-SIPI Department, Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA, USA; prior to that he also held a part-time position with Bombardier Transportation in Canada, working on radar technology. Before going back to graduate school, he was an R&D project engineer with the Institute for Communication Systems, ICOM, Rapperswil, Switzerland. His current research interests include wireless power transfer, mathematical optimization, circuit theory, antennas and propagation, RFID and EMC, as well as analytical and computational electromagnetics.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal, the leading source of news and analysis about RFID and its many business applications. He has reported on business and technology since 1985. His work has appeared in Business 2.0, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many other publications. More than 250,000 people around the world visit the RFID Journal Web site each month, and RFID Journal LIVE! has become the most important international gathering of RFID vendors and end users.

Senthilkumar C.P., Ph.D., is the Director of Technology for the RFID lab at Auburn University, a unique collaboration platform that involves end users, suppliers, technology providers, standards organizations, industry groups, and academic institutions on a global scale. He has researched, advised, and executed projects that is enabling efficient adoption of RFID and Sensor fusion in retailing, aerospace, manufacturing, and transportation. Senthil’s work has focused on the common goal of making the adaptation of emerging technologies more secure, efficient, reliable and useful.

Rich Handley has served as an editor with RFID Journal since 2005 and was named managing editor in 2012. Since then, he has also become the managing editor of IOT Journal, also published by RFID Journal. Rich has served as a judge for the RFID Journal Awards for the past five years. Prior to joining RFID Journal, he worked at several leading trade publications. Rich cofounded independent publisher Hasslein Books in 2008, and is the author or co-author of nine outstanding books to date.

Dr. Erick C. Jones is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska and director of the University of Nebraska’s RFID Supply Chain Lab. He received Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and Masters and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Houston. He has held various positions in industries as engineering specialist, engineering director and project manager. Dr. Jones expertise has led to become and expert in the field of supply chain optimization, distribution logistics and inventory control. His unique background led him to one of the first and largest academic RFID labs in the country. He has published one textbook on RFID and has edited two industry texts on the subject, and is currently working on a military handbook for RFID and other Automatic Information technologies which include GPS and satellite tags. Also, his lab joined the industry academic consortium focused on Logistics sponsored by the National Science Foundation for several years. Currently, he has focused on RFID research for US Department of Transportation, Department of Defense Transportation Command, and with NASA JSC.

Mr. Hachani is an ITU (international telecommunications union) IoT expert. He is also lecturer in ESPRIT school of engineers -Tunisia and the head of RFID research group team. He is also a visiting lecturer in ENSIM- France, where he launched RFID and IoT courses.

Rich Handley has served as an editor with RFID Journal since 2005 and was named managing editor in 2012. Since then, he has also become the managing editor of IOT Journal, also published by RFID Journal. Rich has served as a judge for the RFID Journal Awards for the past five years. Prior to joining RFID Journal, he worked at several leading trade publications. Rich cofounded independent publisher Hasslein Books in 2008, and is the author or co-author of nine outstanding books to date.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal, the leading source of news and analysis about RFID and its many business applications. He has reported on business and technology since 1985. His work has appeared in Business 2.0, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many other publications. More than 250,000 people around the world visit the RFID Journal Web site each month, and RFID Journal LIVE! has become the most important international gathering of RFID vendors and end users.

Robb Clarke’s teaching duties include undergraduate and graduate courses on packaging operations and quality issues, material handling and distribution packaging, and RFID for Packaging. Clarke has a B.S. degree in packaging, an M.B.A. in marketing, a Ph.D. in engineering management, and a Willett Visiting Scholar research position in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, England. Prior to teaching, Dr. Clarke had a 17-year industrial career. At Michigan State, his primary research is in automatic identification (particularly radio frequency identification) for manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution and handling. He is also Director of the independent, dedicated Auto ID Research and Testing Center at Michigan State University.

Mike Graen was employed by Procter & Gamble from 1982 to 2008. He joined P&G after receiving a bachelor’s degree in information systems and an MBA in management from the University of Cincinnati. He held numerous roles at P&G, including within foodservice and lodging products systems, and as corporate data center Manager, and systems manager for the Cape Girardeau Paper Plant. In 1989, Mike was assigned as the global technology leader for P&G on the first Walmart Global Customer Team. His role was to lead the information technology organization to align P&G and Walmart systems on a worldwide basis. This resulted in the global implementation of Electronic Data Information (EDI) systems, development of Walmart’s Retail Link, and the promotion of the Global Data Sharing Network (GDSN) to drive sales and reduce costs. He joined Walmart in 2008, where he led the Supplier Collaboration Board — a supplier/ retailer forum for directing logistics and information technology between Walmart and suppliers. He was responsible for the RFID/EPC technology at Walmart, from a business point-of-view. Mike joined CROSSMARK in November 2013 as V.P. of Collaboration. He led the development of the Center for Collaboration. In June of 2015, Mike returned to Walmart to be a consultant in the retail technology area. His focus is to develop a strategy for On-Shelf Availability (OSA) by leveraging RFID, Robotics and Electronic shelf labels. He is currently serving as a consultant to Walmart in this capacity.

Tali Freed received her Ph.D. from the U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Her B.Sc. and M.Sc. are in Industrial Engineering and Management, from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology. Dr. Freed’s primary areas of research are radio frequency identification, production planning and scheduling, and design of processes and information systems. She is the founding director of PolyGAIT—The Cal Poly Center for Global Automated Identification Technologies.

H.D. Lang is a lecturer in the department of electrical engineering at the HSR in Rapperswil, Switzerland, teaching electrical engineering fundamentals, including circuit theory, network analysis, electromagnetics and electromagnetic compatibility. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electromagnetics from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2018. In 2016, he was an Intern with the SEG-SIPI Department, Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA, USA; prior to that he also held a part-time position with Bombardier Transportation in Canada, working on radar technology. Before going back to graduate school, he was an R&D project engineer with the Institute for Communication Systems, ICOM, Rapperswil, Switzerland. His current research interests include wireless power transfer, mathematical optimization, circuit theory, antennas and propagation, RFID and EMC, as well as analytical and computational electromagnetics.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal, the leading source of news and analysis about RFID and its many business applications. He has reported on business and technology since 1985. His work has appeared in Business 2.0, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many other publications. More than 250,000 people around the world visit the RFID Journal Web site each month, and RFID Journal LIVE! has become the most important international gathering of RFID vendors and end users.

Prior to joining Florida Tech, Dr. Bennett was a Regents’ Researcher, an Associate Vice President for Research, Faculty Integration, and a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).  In addition, she held the Glenn Robinson Chair in Electro-Optics at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).  She founded the Logistics and Maintenance Applied Research Center (LandMARC), a multi-disciplinary center at the Georgia Tech.  Dr. Bennett is a member of the Army Science Board. She is a Fellow with OSA and SPIE, and a Senior Member of the IEEE.  She is on the board of directors for OSA and is the IEEE President for the Council on RFID.   Her research interests are broad to include RFID, decision support systems, and secure supply chain technologies.    She has over 130 publications in books or book chapters, refereed journals, technical reports, and workshops.

Robb Clarke’s teaching duties include undergraduate and graduate courses on packaging operations and quality issues, material handling and distribution packaging, and RFID for Packaging. Clarke has a B.S. degree in packaging, an M.B.A. in marketing, a Ph.D. in engineering management, and a Willett Visiting Scholar research position in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, England. Prior to teaching, Dr. Clarke had a 17-year industrial career. At Michigan State, his primary research is in automatic identification (particularly radio frequency identification) for manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution and handling. He is also Director of the independent, dedicated Auto ID Research and Testing Center at Michigan State University.

Tali Freed received her Ph.D. from the U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Her B.Sc. and M.Sc. are in Industrial Engineering and Management, from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology. Dr. Freed’s primary areas of research are radio frequency identification, production planning and scheduling, and design of processes and information systems. She is the founding director of PolyGAIT—The Cal Poly Center for Global Automated Identification Technologies.

Selwyn Piramuthu is Professor of Information Systems at the University of Florida, where he has taught since Fall 1991. Trained in machine learning, his interests include cryptography with applications related to IoT/RFID, privacy/security, retailing, supply/cold chain management, among others. His (co-authored with Wei Zhou) book, RFID and Sensor Network Automation in the Food Industry, was published by Wiley in 2016.

Samad Rostampour is a professor at Vanier College in Montreal/Canada. He was Postdoctoral researcher and currently is IT director at IoT Laboratory of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He works in the design and the implementation of RFID/IoT systems. Prior to join the IoT Lab., Samad completed his Ph.D. in computer systems architecture where he worked on the security of RFID systems.

Mike Graen was employed by Procter & Gamble from 1982 to 2008. He joined P&G after receiving a bachelor’s degree in information systems and an MBA in management from the University of Cincinnati. He held numerous roles at P&G, including within foodservice and lodging products systems, and as corporate data center Manager, and systems manager for the Cape Girardeau Paper Plant. In 1989, Mike was assigned as the global technology leader for P&G on the first Walmart Global Customer Team. His role was to lead the information technology organization to align P&G and Walmart systems on a worldwide basis. This resulted in the global implementation of Electronic Data Information (EDI) systems, development of Walmart’s Retail Link, and the promotion of the Global Data Sharing Network (GDSN) to drive sales and reduce costs. He joined Walmart in 2008, where he led the Supplier Collaboration Board — a supplier/ retailer forum for directing logistics and information technology between Walmart and suppliers. He was responsible for the RFID/EPC technology at Walmart, from a business point-of-view. Mike joined CROSSMARK in November 2013 as V.P. of Collaboration. He led the development of the Center for Collaboration. In June of 2015, Mike returned to Walmart to be a consultant in the retail technology area. His focus is to develop a strategy for On-Shelf Availability (OSA) by leveraging RFID, Robotics and Electronic shelf labels. He is currently serving as a consultant to Walmart in this capacity.

Mauro Mezzenzana, Ph.D., is professor of Management Information Systems, IoT Systems Design and Development and Digital Business Analysis and Measurement at LIUC University and professor of Supply Chain Management at the Università degli Studi dell’Insubria. He is partner and member of the Scientific Technical Committee at Boardwalk Business Advisory and co-founder at Xensify, an IoT platform for retail operations. Mauro graduated with a degree in Business Engineering from LIUC University, where he became senior researcher at Lab#ID RFId Laboratory, and completed a Corporate Executive MBA while working as central planning manager for a multinational company in the defense and aerospace sector.

Samad Rostampour is a professor at Vanier College in Montreal/Canada. He was Postdoctoral researcher and currently is IT director at IoT Laboratory of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He works in the design and the implementation of RFID/IoT systems. Prior to join the IoT Lab., Samad completed his Ph.D. in computer systems architecture where he worked on the security of RFID systems.