College of Agriculture & Natural Resources School of Packaging

Robb Clarke is Director of the MSU Auto-ID Research and Testing Center (AIRTC) and an Associate Professor of Packaging at Michigan State University.  He had a 17-year industry career in the Packaging and Distribution arena, and is currently in his 14^th year at the MSU School of Packaging, and his 12^th year as Director of the AIRTC.  His teaching duties include undergraduate and graduate courses on Packaging Operations and Quality Issues; Material Handling and Distribution Packaging; Robotics for Packaging; and Auto-ID for Packaging. 

Dr. Clarke has a B.S. degree in Packaging, an M.B.A. in Marketing, a Ph.D. in Engineering Management, and a two-year Willett Visiting Scholar research position in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, England.  At Michigan State, his primary research is in automatic identification (particularly radio frequency identification and bar codes) for manufacturing, packaging, marketing, and supply chain applications.

 Resume

Instructional Activities:

PKG 432 Packaging Processes: Integrated study of packaging and production operations, quality control, and organization and control of machines. Interrelationship of products, packaging, machinery layout and efficiency, and quality issues.
PKG 444 Radio Frequency Identification: Automatic identification tags, codes, and hardware and software for radio frequency identification (RFID). Business applications. Effect of products, materials, packaging, warehousing, supply chain, and quality on radio frequency equipment and readability.
PKG 445 Robotics in Packaging: Robotic systems: Configurations, components, drive mechanisms, control and feedback, and safety. Line inspection, vision systems, guided vehicle, and storage retrieval systems.
PKG 490 Directed Studies in Packaging: Development of solutions to specific packaging problems. Supervised individual study.
PKG 804 Packaging Processes: Integrated study of packaging and production operations, quality control, organization and control of machines. Interrelationship of products, packaging, machinery layout and efficiency, and quality issues.