Over the summer, the DNS Research Federation had 3 interns working in the team. They focused on building a collection of dashboards on DAP.LIVE to increase the accessibility of the platform to users. Since the start of DNSRF we have had an avid youth section every summer, which brings a great opportunity to share what we are doing with the next generation. Joanna, Edward and Emilia brought a buzz into the office and showed enthusiasm in working with the data on the DAP when it came to digesting and displaying the data across an array of dashboards. Throughout their time here, Joanna, Edward and Emilia worked collaboratively and independently to tackle the tasks they were challenged with and presented weekly what they had been working on to the team. Each of them reflected on their time in the team. Read their thoughts below!

Joanna Grant

My name is Joanna Grant and I am 18. I have just finished my A Levels at Wheatley Park school and am working, as a summer intern, here at DNSRF. This is the third summer that I have spent working here and I have been able to work on a range of different projects. 

Last summer, I was involved in making help tutorial videos which demonstrated how to use the platform’s different features. As someone who is usually fairly confident, I was surprised at how much the presence of a camera can unnerve you. I also helped to write the supporting help documentation on how to analyse data sets on the DAP.LIVE - I was much better at this than I was in front of the camera! 

This year I have been creating dashboards on the DAP, which will allow consumers to quickly and easily navigate their way through large data sets and analyse the data across the 60+ data feeds. My favourite dashboards are from the phishing, spam, scam and malware data sets. These dashboards give you a breakdown for the total number of reported incidents, the number of reports per month, the TLDs with the highest number of reports and the number of reports per domain. I find these dashboards really interesting because with the global growth of the Internet, comes a growth in cybercrime and so cybersecurity is becoming increasingly more important. 

I am looking to go into the field of technology and cybersecurity in the future so my experiences at DNSRF have been really valuable in giving me some insight into what it would involve. Everyone at DNSRF is very friendly and I can definitely see myself working here full time at some point.

Edward Pratt

My name is Edward Pratt and I have just finished my A-Levels. Shortly after finishing my last exam I secured a summer internship with the DNS Research Federation. This was the first summer I have worked here but in this short amount of time I have been introduced to working life.

I began by using the DAP.LIVE Platform to build dashboards representing many different data sources. First working on dashboards to represent all kinds of data about TLDs then moving on and displaying and creating dashboards on more difficult topics such as RPKI. This has been a great learning experience for me and has helped prepare me for any future work I may partake in.

My favourite part of using the DAP has been understanding the data sources in order to better my ability to show them off in a useful way, creating the complex formulae to display data and managing any difficulties that may come up with the way data is stored. I moved on to creating new documentation for the DAP, in order to help consumers use the system proficiently. 

The DNSRF team has been welcoming from the start and has always included me. This has made it easy for me to integrate and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working here. I am going to study computer science at Exeter University and after that I plan on working in a technological field. My experience from working here will be valuable in whatever I end up doing in the future.

Emilia Robertshaw

My name is Emilia Robertshaw, I am 16 and I have just completed my GCSE’s. I have been working as a summer intern at DNSRF for 2 years. Both projects I’ve worked on have helped me develop different skills and prepared me for working life in the future. 

Last summer, I was involved in the production of tutorial videos which demonstrated the features of the DAP.LIVE. This was extremely useful for developing my confidence and my ability to explain the work that I was doing. Alongside this, I also gained an understanding of video production which I was previously unfamiliar with. 

This summer, I used the DAP.LIVE platform to create dashboards from the data on the system. This was done in a way that made the data more accessible and easier to navigate for the users. It also demonstrates how the users can present their own data in a more visual way through charts and graphs. I found working on this project very interesting and it was definitely more technical than the work I had previously done for the company. It helped develop my teamwork skills as I worked closely with the other interns we had this year and also helped develop confidence in my own work as we would share what we were working on in the team meetings. 

Overall, my time at DNSRF has been amazing. The team is extremely supportive and the atmosphere in the office is very welcoming and positive. Although I am not entirely sure what I would like to do in the future, I can guarantee that my experience will be very valuable wherever I end up.