UC Irvine Extension Offers Important Courses for Cutting-Edge Radio Frequency Identification Devices

Courses Explain the Benefits of RFID Technology Now Mandated by U.S. Department of Defense

IRVINE, Calif. – April 27, 2006 – Continuing its dedication to providing business professionals with the latest technological information available to propel their companies to greater success, UC Irvine Extension has added additional courses on Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) to further explore this cutting-edge tracking technology and its ability to solve business issues. The second of three four-day courses, “Practical Deployment Strategies for RFID,” will take place 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, May 18-21, 2006 at the UCI Learning Center in Orange. The last course in this series is scheduled for June. All courses are required to fulfill UC Irvine Extension’s innovative RFID certificate program.

RFID technology makes item tracking more efficient because it eliminates the need for employees to physically scan or read barcodes, tags or identification cards. Examples of RFID already in use include point-of-sale transactions (Mobil SpeedPass™), toll road metering (FasTrak™), smart ID cards and luggage handling systems for airports.

With organizations like the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart now mandating that their suppliers use RFID tags on their products, UC Irvine Extension believes this technology will become an important factor in the long-term success of any company doing business at these levels.
“We are excited to offer this course as part of our unique certificate program process that few other universities and educators provide,” says Stefano M. Stefan, Assistant Director of Business, Management, Legal and IT Programs for UC Irvine Extension. “Our program is the first of its kind in the country dedicated to the business benefits of this emerging technology.”

The program is designed for CIOs, directors, supervisors, managers, and logistics personnel needing to understand the business processes and implications of RFID technology and whether it would benefit their companies.”

“Practical Deployment Strategies for RFID,” will provide the following:

• An understanding of RFID architecture in terms of internal and collaborative systems
• Ideas on how a collaborative system can be designed to fit specific businesses needs
• A discussion of how developing and deploying an RFID system can generate a positive return on investment
• Tools for implementing and managing an RFID project
• An opportunity to exchange ideas with the instructor and the other course participants

About UC Irvine Extension

As the continuing education arm of UCI, UC Irvine Extension is dedicated to providing a university-level learning experience for students, offering thousands of exciting courses and programs to local, regional, and global constituencies. For more information on this seminar please contact Jackie Badwah at (949) 824-3413. For more information about UC Irvine Extension visit www.extension.uci.edu.

About the University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship, and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest growing university of California campuses, with more than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.3 billion. For more news, visit www.today.uci.edu.