WaveMark completes RFID collaboration with UMass Lowell

WaveMark, Inc., the leading provider of RFID-based supply-chain optimization solutions helping to reduce cost for hospitals and medical device manufacturers, and UMass Lowell announced that they have completed a successful collaboration to bring a new RFID product to market.    

Under the umbrella of the UMass Lowell Capstone engineering program, a team of students in the Plastics Engineering program worked closely with WaveMark engineers to invent and refine a specialized RFID tag for hospital use. The new device improves hospital storage efficiency, enabling more products to fit into existing WaveMark RFID smart cabinets in hospitals. The device will be assembled in Braintree, Mass., by Employability, a company dedicated to providing competitive manufacturing jobs with benefits to local persons with disabilities.

"Constant innovation assures that WaveMark products are best-in-class. Our friends at UMass Lowell took a fresh look at problems that we have been immersed in for a long time. They brought some very innovative ideas to the table, and those ideas improved our new product." said Rich Leitermann, senior director of Hardware Engineering and Manufacturing at WaveMark.

Under the direction of Prof. Jim Huang, the two-student team of Corey Hall and Mike Louvaris met with WaveMark engineers during the course of their senior year starting in September 2011 and concluding this week. They documented the requirements of the WaveMark problem, brainstormed ideas, and applied the extensive tools available at the UMass Lowell engineering department to analyze designs and build 3-D printed prototypes. The students recently made a final presentation to WaveMark management. WaveMark is currently productizing the new device. This will lead to shipping products to customers this summer. "This project was a great opportunity to utilize the skills learned in the classroom, and use them to help improve a real product," said Louvaris of Lynn, Mass. Hall, of Merrimack, NH agreed. "This experience was very rewarding since we were working with and receiving feedback from people out in the Industry while using the knowledge that we gained from UMass Lowell"

"What began as a request to help a community partner, Employability, became a three-way partnership between the university, the community and business. How great that our students were able help solve a technical problem while preserving jobs for folks with physical challenges," said Linda Barrington, UMass Lowell Engineering service-learning coordinator, who provided logistical support and weekly supervision of the team.