SofTECH


RFID
79 minutes, 36.2mb, recorded 2004-09-22
RFID -- Radio Frequency Identification -- is transforming the way companies track inventory, artwork and even law briefs, but some fear it could be used for more "Orwellian" pursuits. A panel of leading technology developers and pioneer end-user corporations explores this promising and yet maligned emerging technology that both empowers consumers and raises privacy issues.
  • How is the technology currently being used?
  • How is RFID being used for electronic payments?
  • What impact is it having on the business community?
  • RFID is set to revolutionize supply chains. How will it change product warehousing, distribution, fulfillment and retail shopping?
  • How might it change our personal lives?
  • What privacy issue concerns does it raise? Is there a need for privacy legislation specifically aimed at RFID?

Panelists
John Occhipinti, Woodside Fund
Keith Dierkx, Embarcadero Systems
Jorge Fernandes, VIVOtech
Salil Padhal, HP Labs
Steve Shafer, Microsoft Research

This presentation is part of a series of events produced by SofTECH.


John Occhipinti, Managing Director, Woodside Fund
http://www.woodsidefund.com
John Occhipinti has more than 14 years of experience in enterprise software technology, marketing, and sales. As Managing Director of Woodside Fund, Mr. Occhipinti dedicates his expertise to the development of ventures in the enterprise software sector. He serves on the Board of Directors of Intalio (Business Process Management infrastructure software), CenterBoard (Enterprise Information Integration software), Tacit Knowledge Systems (Enterprise Expertise Automation software) and USBuild (Supply-chain services for the production home building Industry).

Prior to joining Woodside Fund, Mr. Occhipinti was an early employee at Netscape Communications. Initially, as Director of Sales, he led a team that drove the company's first significant revenues, helping launch Netscape through its initial public offering. Later, Mr. Occhipinti ran Netscape's Electronic Software Distribution and Strategic Channel Sales groups. During his tenure at Netscape, he worked closely with hundreds of early stage entrepreneurs helping build web-based e-commerce and enterprise software applications. Prior to Netscape, Mr. Occhipinti worked at Oracle Corporation, marketing and selling large-scale enterprise database technologies.

Mr. Occhipinti has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Walter A. Haas School of Business, and a BA from the University of California Berkeley. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Trinity School. For leisure, he enjoys tennis, skiing, golf, and spending time with his family.


Jorge Fernandes, Co-Founder and CEO, VIVOtech
www.vivotech.com
Jorge Fernandes is chief executive officer and co-founder of ViVOtech. Prior to joining ViVOtech, Mr. Fernandes was president and founder of EmployeeLife.com (now Benefit America), the nation's premier provider of online employee benefits solutions. After developing a business model, he secured funding from the Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE) and Texas Pacific Group in April 1999.

Prior to EmployeeLife, Mr. Fernandes founded BioLumin Inc., which designs and manufactures drug discovery instrumentation. During his work with BioLumin as vice president of engineering, Mr. Fernandes developed five patents in the area of software, robotics and digital feedback mechanisms. In 1996, BioLumin was sold to Molecular Dynamics (NASDAQ: MDYN).

In 1987, Mr. Fernandes founded another company, Laser-Tron, to provide arcade games to the family entertainment market. He received his first patent on a mechanism to differentiate laser beams in a multibeam, single-target environment. Laser-Tron went public in 1994, and was later sold to Acclaim Entertainment (NASDAQ: AKLM). Mr. Fernandes received his B.S.E.E from San Diego State University. Mr. Fernandes is also an Executive Fellow at Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.


Keith Dierkx is Senior Vice President of Operations for Embarcadero Systems Corporation with responsibility as CIO for delivering IT services and solutions to Marine Terminal Corporation and its joint venture partners � Total Terminals Inc (Hanjin), West Basin Container Terminals (Yang Ming Lines and China Shipping) and Seaside Terminal Services (Evergreen).

Prior to Embarcadero Systems Corp. Mr. Dierkx was Savi Technology�s Vice President of Strategic Markets and Business Development. As the first commercial executive hire at Savi Technology, he formulated the business model, go-to-market strategy and strategic markets from 1999 through 2002.

Mr. Dierkx was a member of the Auto-ID Center at MIT (now part of EPC Global) technology board which developed the standards around the Electronic Product Code and associated standards and infrastructure. He managed the first RFID pilot at Wal-Mart under the auspices of the Auto-ID Center.

Mr. Dierkx is an alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley and Duke�s Fuqua School of Business.


Steven A. N. Shafer, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Corporation
Dr. Steven A. N. Shafer is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Corporation working in the area of ubiquitous computing. He received his BA from the University of Florida in 1976, and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon in 1983. He was then a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon until 1995.

He founded the Calibrated Imaging Laboratory, working on the modeling of color, highlights, texture, lens and camera optics. He also worked on robot driving in the NAVLAB robot truck project. Dr. Shafer was a founder and later Chair of the Robotics Doctoral Program at Carnegie Mellon, and helped establish the Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

Dr. Shafer joined Microsoft in 1995, where he started the EasyLiving project to develop an architecture for building intelligent environments. His current work is in location awareness and RFID. He is past Chair of the IEEE PAMI TC, the primary scientific organization for computer vision, and is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Pervasive Computing magazine, as well as serving on the Program Committees of numerous recent conferences in pervasive and ubiquitous computing. Dr. Shafer is one of the Microsoft representatives at EPCglobal, an international RFID standards organization, and is a co-author of the Microsoft RFID Privacy whitepaper.


Salil Pradhan, CTO RFID Program, HP Labs
Salil Pradhan is the Chief Technology Officer for the HP RFID Program. He also heads RFID and sensor network research at HP Laboratories for comprehensively and securely tracking objects, their interactions and the environmental conditions, at the lowest possible cost. The work is important to business for supply chain management and asset tracking. He is a frequent speaker at technology conferences. Prior to this role, he has lead development of key technologies in areas ranging from mobile computing to compiler technology.

Prior to joining HP, Mr. Pradhan co-founded Tendril Software, Inc., for automating software development and maintenance process. Pradhan received his MS in Computer Science from Northeastern University. He has written several technical papers and has over 50 patents invarious stages of processing.


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