Skanda Harisha receives Best Poster Award at IEEE RFID 2025 for work on tracking mmID tags

Mena Davidson • May 27, 2025
Harisha and PhD advisor Aline Eid developed a unique type of tag that can be localized using a radar system.
A woman and a man stand side-by-side holding identical award certificates.
Professor Aline Eid (L) and PhD Student Skanda Harisha hold up copies of their Best Poster Award at the IEEE RFID 2025 conference. Photo courtesy of Aline Eid.

Skanda Harisha, doctoral student in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), won a Best Poster Award for his presentation at the 19th Annual International Conference on RFID (IEEE RFID 2025). His winning poster on “FMCW Localization of mmID Tags” was coauthored with his PhD advisors, Aline Eid, assistant professor of ECE, and Jimmy Hester, CTO and co-founder at Atheraxon and adjunct assistant professor of ECE.

“The system could be used for applications like tracking drones, robots, or people in indoor spaces like warehouses, where you’re trying to avoid people being hit by forklifts or other equipment. It could be used anywhere where GPS doesn’t reliably work,” said Harisha. “It could also be useful in the automotive industry to navigate autonomous cars in complex scenarios.” 

The team designed a millimeter-wave (mmID) tag that could be located in 3D space using an off-the-shelf frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. FMCW radars are designed to measure the velocity and position of moving objects, using a signal that constantly varies its frequency within a certain range. The mmID tag that the research team developed works by receiving a signal from the radar, modulating the frequency with a specific signature, and then reflecting it back for the radar to detect.

Two men stand facing each other as one explains an academic poster to the other.
Skanda Harisha (R) presents his poster, “FMCW Localization of mmID Tags,” to another conference attendee. Photo courtesy of Skanda Harisha.

The standard method of locating tags in the environment requires multiple radars to triangulate the signal. In the presented work, the researchers were able to locate their mmID tags in 3D space using a single radar—optimizing the efficiency and cost of the system.

The poster reflects the team’s initial work to develop and test their system. They are currently working to improve the system’s ability to locate and track moving objects.