Research

The research program we pursue is as diverse as the challenges our research partners face. We divide our approximately 100 research projects into the three building blocks: Business Processes & Applications, Software & Network, and Hardware.

• At the business layer we investigate business cases, applications, privacy and security aspects with a clear focus on fundamentally new business processes and industries which include payment, leasing, insurance, quality management, factory design, 3PL-managenemt, brand protection, and anti-counterfeiting amongst others. While all labs are involved in business related questions, the labs of St. Gallen/ETH, Keio, Cambridge and MIT are leading these efforts.
• With respect to the software & networking building block we research the future network and system architecture which needs to support fundamental new business processes and leverage the functionality of class 2 and higher tags. Again, all labs are involved in software & network research. However, MIT, and Keio dedicate most of their resources to this.
• At the hardware level we look at RF & Chip design issues and focus on (a) the development of class 2 and higher tags that might include memory, battery, sensors, and actuators, and (b) on enhancing the read rates in challenging environments. The related research projects are mainly driven by the labs at MIT, Fudan, ICU, and Adelaide.