Stephanie Dennis

Stephanie Sokol for OUSECS

A new social application is growing in popularity at Oakland University. Founded by computer science students Chuck Kelly, Brett McIsaac and Zach Fregoli, ‘Buhz’ connects people on campus, getting word out about events, and

helping build communication.

Described as “Twitter for college,” the idea for Buhz came to Kelly as a freshman — he wanted an easier way to know about social things on campus, so he could get involved while still focusing on school. From there the idea grew from a concept into a full application.

“A more connected, more informed campus would probably be the short answer (for what this app provides), but it’s so much more than that,” Kelly said. “Even this early on while the product is still rough we have had couples that met through Buhz, countless friends made, freshmen students have found out and joined orgs they otherwise would not have known existed.”

Currently, the app is available to OU and University of Michigan students, primarily for iPhone, but is in development for Android and the Web.

With thousands of students signed up, the campus feed provides a good outlet for users to share their thoughts, ideas and campus news with members of the university community.

Keeping the app to just two schools and one phone have helped the team find out what students want, which Kelly said allowed them to go in just a few updates “from a product students like to a product students love.”

“We have (received feedback) and the feedback has been great so far, but it’s a lot more than making a solid app that people think could be useful, it needs to be special,” Kelly said. “It needs to make people smile and light up when they use it and it needs to keep users interested and coming back. Right now we’re working on these types of things and they are sort of like the final touches to an app.”

To download the application for iPhone, visit buhz.com or the App store. The invite code GRIZZ can be used for immediate download.

For more information about the computer science program at OU, visit oakland.edu/secs/cse.