PrintTEX: UTM Trio Develops 24-hour Self-service Printing Solution

By Nur Fadhliana Shaari

JOHOR BAHRU, June 21 (Bernama) -- What began as a trivial issue - printing assignments outside regular hours - became the driving force behind an innovative venture by three Universiti Teknologi Malaysia students, who developed PrintTEX, a self-service kiosk offering round-the-clock printing access.

Through their startup, Uninet Teknologi Enterprise, the trio from the Faculty of Computing and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering – Fikri Akmal Aizuddin Bahrim, 23, as Chief Executive Officer; Iqmal Aizat Mohd Zamri, 23, as Chief Technology Officer; and Low Lie Xin, 25, as Chief Operating Officer – began operating the kiosk in December 2023.

Fikri Akmal Aizuddin, a final-year computer science student, said the kiosk is complemented by the PrintTEX mobile app, which offers on-demand printing services with rates as low as RM0.20 for black and white and RM0.45 for colour prints.

“The PrintTEX app comes with several handy features, such as users being able to find the nearest kiosk, upload documents and make payments online.

“Users just need to install the app, upload their documents, make a minimum payment of RM3, and then head to the kiosk to scan the QR code and print straight away,” he said when met by Bernama here.

Fikri Akmal Aizuddin said they first developed a basic prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) in August 2023 using their own funds, which covered development costs, hardware such as printers, storage systems and other electronic components.

He shared that with full support from the UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship, his team successfully secured RM30,000 from the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) to assist with system development, documentation, and company registration.

“We developed the entire system ourselves, from the mobile app and integration platform to printer configuration and payment management. It took us around six months for the research and development and another month or two to build the first unit,” he said.

Currently, two PrintTEX kiosks are available at the UTM Skudai campus – one in the 24-hour Study Room at the Sultanah Zanariah Library and another at Arked Lestari – while a third unit is operating outside Johor at UNISEL Bestari Jaya in Selangor.

The company has also been approached by two higher education institutions under MARA that have expressed interest in allocating space for the installation of the Internet of Things (IoT)-based kiosk at their campuses.

--BERNAMA