About Us
OVERVIEW
Writing is one of humanity’s oldest interfaces. Long before keyboards and screens, people captured ideas with charcoal, ink, and graphite – simple tools that helped shape culture, education, business, and imagination. The stylus is the modern continuation of that legacy: a way of thinking with your hands, drawing connections, and expressing ideas naturally.
The Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) exists to ensure that digital ink is just as universal.
USI is an industry consortium that develops and maintains the open active stylus standard adopted across the computing ecosystem. By bringing together PC OEMs, silicon and IC vendors, software developers, accessory makers, and ecosystem partners, USI defines how a stylus and device communicate from initial pairing and basic inking to pressure and tilt sensing, programmable buttons, and advanced features.
We believe that something as intuitive and universal as writing deserves digital interoperability. Users should be able to pick up a stylus they love and trust that it works. Manufacturers should be able to innovate without being locked into proprietary solutions. Developers should be able to build once and reach millions of digital-ink–enabled devices.
OUR VISION
A world where users, students, creators, and professionals can think and create digitally with the same freedom that paper and pen have offered for centuries – enabled by a standard that makes a stylus truly universal.
OUR PURPOSE
To make digital writing, drawing, and creativity seamless across devices, platforms, and brands — by advancing a single shared active stylus standard.
WHAT WE DO
- Develop and evolve the USI specification.
- Operate cross-industry working groups and technical committees.
- Support certification, compliance, and interoperability testing
- Promote the global adoption of digital ink
Board of Directors
Alexander Erdman
President
Alexander Erdman
President
Field Sales Engineer, Intel Corporation
Alex Erdman is currently in the Global Accounts organization within Intel’s Sales and Marketing Group and is responsible for ecosystem and UX pathfinding and innovation. He joined Intel in 2013 as a Hardware Engineer in the PC Client Group and has held positions in applications engineering, product architecture, and segment marketing. Alex has been a part of USI since its inception in 2014 and contributed to the early test and certification tool development as well as organized the group’s first interoperability test events.
Hadi Zadeh
Vice President
Hadi Zadeh
Vice President
Input Systems Hardware Tech Lead, Google
Hadi Zadeh joined Google in 2016 and he is currently the input systems tech lead for the ChromeOS devices where his focus is on the next generation of consumer electronics products. Hadi is also in charge of design and test specifications for touch, stylus, keyboard, and trackpad in 250+ devices across Google which turn into mass production of 70M+ Chromebooks per year.
Pete Mueller
Executive Director
Pete Mueller
Executive Director
Pete Mueller is currently Executive Director of the Universal Stylus Initiative. Pete served as President and Chairman of USI from it’s beginning in 2015 until 2023. Prior to joining USI, Pete was a Senior Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation. He first joined Intel in 1988 and held positions in engineering, architecture, senior management and ecosystem enabling. While at Intel he worked on technology development and industry standards in multiple domains, including Memory, PCBs, Wifi, Bluetooth, Cellular and I/O standards.
Ritch Russ
Secretary/Treasurer
Ritch Russ
Secretary/Treasurer
Senior Manager, Innovation Sourcing, Lenovo Inc.
Alex Erdman is currently in the Global Accounts organization wRitch Russ has more than 20 years’ experience in the consumer electronic and electronic component business, with Sales, Marketing and Technical roles. Currently he is heading Lenovo’s Innovation Sourcing efforts into its next generation products.
Maxwell Xiang
Director
Maxwell Xiang
Director
IGeneral Manager, Hanvon C-Pen Co.,Ltd.
Maxwell Xiang currently is the General Manager of Hanvon C-Pen, a holding subsidiary company of Hanwang Technology. Having previously served as CTO of Hanvon Pentech. Mr.Xiang has rich experience on R&D ,company management and marketing.Under his leadership, Hanvon C-Pen make a significant breakthrough whether on domestic market or international market.
Alexis Menard
Director
Alexis Menard
Director
Web Platform Architect, Intel
Alexis Menard joined Intel in 2012. He is currently a software engineer specializing in web technologies and web browsers. His main focus is on the ever-evolving web platform, which includes work on W3C standards as well as Blink/Chromium with a focus on form factors, for example, foldables/dual screens and stylus capabilities. In the past, Alexis worked on the immersive web (WebXR), CSS and co-created the Crosswalk Web Runtime. Before Intel, Alexis worked at Nokia on WebKit, especially the N9 web browser, and the Qt framework. Alexis is originally from France and holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Toulouse University.