By Bruce Philpot
Ohio University's Center for Automatic Identification celebrates its 17th anniversary in 2003. Part of the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology, the center is recognized as the nation's first university-based, unbiased education and research center devoted solely to Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) technologies. These technologies include the Universal Product Code (UPC), used in retail for the last 30 years and still going strong. While the center has its roots in this bar coding technology, more recent developments such as magnetic stripe cards, radio frequency identification (RFID), smart cards and biometrics are also studied.
Through its two-pronged mission of education and research, the Center strives to further the understanding and implementation of various AIDC technologies. The center's resources, including a fully-equipped AIDC teaching laboratory in Stocker Center, enable undergraduate Industrial Technology students to get hands-on experience. Department chair Jim Fales and Professors Todd Myers and Mark Rowe lead these courses. Center Managing Director Bruce Philpot also travels to major industry trade shows with Web-based offerings and hands-on learning labs.
But the center's single largest yearly educational event is held in Stocker Center each July. The 2003 AIDC Technical Institute, July 27-Aug. 1, has attracted many business and academic attendees from across the globe, including visiting college and university professors. Developed by Fales in 1987, the Institute has helped hundreds of attendees -- and, as a result, thousands of college students -- grasp the fundamentals of the technologies and their business applications.
One of the center's current revenue-generating research projects, led by Fales and Myers, is to help a major photofinishing company with its bar code quality and in-house printer maintenance programs. Specifically, the Center is studying symbol scannability and printing quality to ultimately ensure customer satisfaction.
Bruce Philpot is the managing director of the Center for Automatic Identification.
