A student veteran at Syracuse University got the idea to create an app for other veterans on campus when he realized many did not know about the resources available to them at the university.

Charles Preuss, a junior information management and technology major who served as an airborne paratrooper for the U.S. Army for seven years, founded VeteransU, an app that fits the needs of student veterans. The app launched in August in time for the beginning of the fall semester.

Preuss, the former vice president of the Student Veterans Organization at SU, said he saw a need for the app when he spoke to student veterans who were not aware of the university’s resources for veterans. The students generally got their information about events on campus via emails that they often overlooked, he said, and so he thought of making an app where they could “have it all under one roof.”

“I want VeteransU to be a portal to facilitate success amongst veterans,” Preuss added.

His first step in developing the app was to propose the idea to the Office of Veterans and Military Affairs. VeteransU got funding just two weeks later, and four graduate students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science were hired to build the app. The app, which was completed in about two months, features push notifications that inform users about various events on campus.

The app’s other features include RoadMap, NewsFeed and Veteran Resources. RoadMap is a feature that aids with the application process by making student veterans aware of the available benefits from their military service, said Tushar Bhatia, one of the graduate students who was part of the Android development team and was involved in conceptualizing, designing and implementing the app.

The NewsFeed feature lets veterans know about the events organized specifically for them. They can mark events on their calendar and view PDF attachments for those events, Bhatia said. The Veterans Resources section of the app focuses on connecting the student veterans with facilities that are available to them.
As the product manager of the app, Preuss said he was responsible for getting the whole VeteransU team on the same page and working toward the same end goal. He gave input on how different features added value to the app, and about the software development life cycle.

The biggest obstacle Preuss said he experienced throughout the creation of VeteransU was the development of the backhand system. The team of four was essentially developing two apps — one for Apple and one for Android — in only two and a half months.

VeteransU can connect student veterans with one another to improve camaraderie and team building, Preuss said, and can also build motivation and assist veterans in getting the help they need to be successful academically, which was the goal of the project.

Steve Masiclat, a veteran and director of the New Media Management graduate program in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said in an email he jumped at the chance to work with Preuss and took on the role of project director for the app.

“From the beginning we envisioned helping all student veterans, no matter what college or university they attend, so we knew the app had to be designed in a way that would allow us to quickly and efficiently re-purpose the code to another university,” Masiclat said.

Preuss will present the app at the Students Veterans Association national conference in January to the organization’s 600 chapters in hopes of opening VeteransU to all universities in the U.S.

Published on November 11, 2015 at 10:00 pm

Contact Rachel: rgreen@syr.edu