Universities ride growing RFID wave: IHEs adjust curricula to meet expected demand.

College libraries are using it in place of bar codes. Manufacturers and retailers use it to manage the supply chain. The CIO of Harvard Medical School even had it implanted in his arm to judge the pros and cons for himself.

"It" is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, and its growing use is running up against a shortage of people skilled in the technology. A March study by the Computing Technology Industry Association (www.comptia.org) says the current supply of professionals skilled in RFID is too low to meet demand. That's why some IHEs are adjusting their curricula to accommodate the changes of the marketplace.

Baylor University (Texas), for example, has added RFID to its existing supply chain courses, and Western Michigan University opened the RFID Technology Center Laboratory at its College of Engineering and Applied Sciences last fall. Indiana University's Kelley School of Business announced it would begin to integrate RFID into curricula for MBA students and undergraduates.

RFID eventually will be a part of a functional core of classes that all Kelley School undergraduates must complete in order to graduate.