Startup developing printing app for easier student printing hires five employees, expands accessibility

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University graduates have developed an app that allows users to print documents from smartphones to select printers on university campuses. The app is now accessible at seven universities and has grown the graduates' company by five people.

UPrint was developed in 2015 by co-founders Rick Li and Joseph Watkins, graduates of Purdue’s College of Health and Human Sciences and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. UPrint is a startup out of The Anvil, Purdue’s student-run entrepreneurship co-working space.

“Since our initial launch in early 2015, we have hired multiple employees who are experts in software engineering, cybersecurity and finance,” Li said. “We also have teams for technological support on three different continents. These new hires are well poised to accelerate the development of the application to the next level, not just nationally, but globally as well.”

UPrint is readily available at seven universities: Purdue, the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, TamKang University in Taiwan, Michigan State University, University of North Carolina, Columbia University, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“There are over 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States alone,” Li said. “The market potential for this app is huge, and we feel like there is a major need for it due to the time it takes for students trying to print a single document.”

In 2015, the app had 5,000 to 6,000 users and was available only at Purdue University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since then, the app has been restructured and will be relaunched later this month, Li said.

“Right now we are working on restructuring the app to include advertisements for local businesses in West Lafayette and Lafayette,” Li said. “Users will open the app and will immediately see a promotion or coupon for a local business. We are hoping this will generate more users because they will receive exclusive deals with local vendors along with the ability to print from wherever they want. Because we had around 6,000 users in our initial launch in 2015, businesses are seeing this as a great way to get their name out there, especially since printing is something that every student uses.”

Users are able to download the app from the iTunes and Android Store, and then print selected documents to compatible on-campus printers.

“UPrint cuts out the middle step of having to log in to an on-campus printer by verifying the user’s Purdue email on the app, which then allows students’ access to the on-campus printers,” Li said. “UPrint does not store or send any files, credentials, or access systems besides the user’s email, which is used only for log-in purposes. Next, all that is left to do for the student is to release the documents from the release station.”

The UPrint team is working on updates that will let users upload documents to the app, which will allow users to store documents and passwords on the app. The company also plans to enable a feature to screen for plagiarism and copyrighting in users’ documents on the app.

“We plan to relaunch the app and then roll out updates to the system as soon as possible,” Li said. “We are interested in hiring a few student interns who want to work with technology. We are also open to creating partnerships in the community.”

About the Anvil

The Anvil is the nation’s largest co-working space and is operated by and for Purdue students as well as for the surrounding community. The Anvil is located at 320 North St. in West Lafayette, Indiana, adjacent to the Purdue campus.

About Purdue Foundry

The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. Managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, the Purdue Foundry was named a top recipient at the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Designation and Awards Program by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

Purdue Research Foundation contact: Hillary Henry, 765-588-3586, hkhenry@prf.org

Writer: Ellen Teske, EMTeske@prf.org 

Source: Rick Li, 217-778-7876, team@uprint.io