Auburn University
Department of Consumer & Design Sciences
Get in touch with us at kwonwis@auburn.edu
iRACE Hackathon©
During the iRACE Hackathon©, students learn about a selected retail technology, build experiences with it using technology kits provided by industry sponsors, and enjoy a hands-on workshop of creating their own technology solution to address an industry challenge.
Sponsored by
Contributors to 2025 iRACE Hackathon©
Mr. Nick Testanero
President,
Cellotape Smart Products,
Resource Label Group
Hackathon Session 2 Speaker &
Tag Kit Coordinator
Mr. Kevin Frydryk
Vice President, Markets & Products,
Resource Label Group
Hackathon Program and Award Coordinator
Mr. Larry Ino
Director of Operations,
Cellotape Smart Products,
Resource Label Group
Hackathon Session 2 Facility Tour Coordinator
Mr. Christian Oswald
Founder & CEO
Rainfall Digital
Hackathon Session 3 Speaker
Mr. Jason Storey
President & Co-Founder
Unknown Union
Hackathon Session 3 Speaker
Mr. Jade Bruce
Lab Operations Manager
Auburn University RFID Lab
Hackathon Session 1 RFID Lab Tour Coordinator & Speaker
Meet the Judges
Marc Wendt
Founder & Creative Director
BrandFuel Co.
With over 30 years of experience in the design industry, Marc Wendt founded BrandFuel Co. in 2013. Based in Covington, Kentucky, BrandFuel is serving national brands including Cheez-It®, Pringles®, Pure Organic®, Nissin®, Maker’s Mark®, Kroger®, Fifth Third Bank®, Resource Label Group®, Nutri-Grain®, and Beam Suntory.
Marc studied business and graphic design at Northern Kentucky University, graduating with honors in 1996. His passion for design was sparked by a love of skateboarding and music.
In 2005, Marc worked in Germany on the European expansion of Pringles®, followed by branding work for Schneider Weisse, one of the country’s oldest wheat beers. Upon returning to the US, he joined Maker’s Mark®, a brand he admired.
Today, Marc continues to find creative inspiration through travel—seeking out new perspectives, cultures, and ideas wherever he goes.
Christian Oswald
Founder & CEO
Rainfall Digital
Christian Oswald is the founder and CEO of Rainfall Digital, where he brings over two decades of innovation spanning defense, enterprise technology, and emerging industries. His experience includes senior roles at Fortune 50 leaders such as Cisco and Salesforce, as well as strategic operations as a war veteran with the Australian Department of Defense and the United Nations.
At Rainfall, Christian leads the mission to connect the physical and digital worlds through intelligent identity technology—helping organizations across defense, facilities, fashion, consumer goods, and sports achieve unprecedented engagement, transparency and operational efficiency. By uniting AI and smart tagging, he’s redefining how the world tracks, secures, and understands its most valuable assets.
Jason Storey
President & Co-Founder
Unknown Union
Jason Storey brings a unique blend of corporate leadership, legal expertise, and cultural innovation to the evolving landscape of sports and technology. Trained as a corporate and intellectual property attorney, Jason went on to serve as an executive at The McGraw-Hill Companies, where he helped oversee globally recognized brands including McGraw-Hill Education, Standard & Poor’s, Platts, and JD Power.
In 2010, he founded Unknown Union, a design and storytelling studio that uses apparel as a vehicle for cultural narrative and community building. Under his leadership, Unknown Union has collaborated with artists, historians, and institutions worldwide to create garments that carry the stories of people, history, and identity.
Most recently, Jason partnered with Rainfall to pioneer the integration of NFC-enabled technology into apparel, transforming jerseys and fan gear into interactive media channels. This innovation bridges the physical and digital worlds, creating direct engagement between athletes, teams, and their fan bases—while opening new, compliant revenue streams in the NIL era.
Justin Patton
Director
Auburn University RFID Lab
Justin Patton is the Director of the Auburn University RFID Lab, a research institute focusing on the business case and technical implementation of emerging technologies in retail, supply chain, aerospace, and manufacturing. The RFID Lab is a unique private-academic partnership between users, technology vendors, standards organizations, and faculty. Justin has participated in business case research for advanced technology with Walmart, Target, Amazon, FedEx, Dillard’s, Macy’s, Delta Air Lines, and Boeing among others, and is currently supporting projects including multiple technologies supporting serialized supply chain.
He is one of the primary developers of the ARC program, the first and most widely utilized international performance validation system for RFID, and is currently working to help standardize serialized inventory in all aspects of the supply chain.
Past iRACE Hackathon© Stories
