While a student at Livingston High School in New Jersey, Ayyadurai volunteered at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) where his mother worked.[14] There he created an email system to emulate the paper-based interoffice mail system then in use at the medical school.[14][15] In 1982, he registered the copyright for his software, called "EMAIL", as well as for the program's user documentation.[3]