Intern Spotlight October 2026
Name: Francis Ametewee
Major and College: University of Maryland College Park, Information Science
Internship Title: Computer Scientist Intern
Internship Site: LabN Consulting
1) Please tell us about your career goals.
My goal is to become a software engineer who builds products people depend on. Outside class, I built TerpNav, a UMD campus navigator that is live at terpnav.com and drew 700+ visitors in its first month. My startup, HIT Technologies, shipped Slap and Dash, a Roblox game with 4,600+ sessions that was featured by UMD's College of Information Studies. My LabN internship taught me to back every result with evidence and to document my work so someone else can check it. Next, I want a summer 2027 software engineering internship where I can go deep on production systems under senior engineers. I hope it turns into a full-time offer, ideally here in the DMV. I also plan to earn an MS in Information Systems from UMD's Smith School of Business through its Plus One program by May 2029.
2) Tell us about your internship (i.e., day-to-day responsibilities, special projects/clients, and work culture).
Over 11 weeks on LabN's Network Technology team, I built and validated an emulated deterministic-networking lab (IETF DetNet PREOF, IEEE 802.1CB FRER) on Linux namespaces across four sequenced objectives: Layer 2 replication, static Layer 3 routing, and dynamic OSPF. I automated this work as five regression suites totaling 263 assertions, proving zero-loss delivery over two disjoint paths with duplicate elimination at the far edge.
My biggest challenge was writing up the work so a reader who wasn't there could follow it. I solved this by using a standard write-up template for every objective.
3) Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?
I found LabN Consulting's Summer Network Technology Intern posting on Handshake and applied on April 14, 2026. A week later, LabN's Operations Director messaged me on Handshake, and we had a screening call in late April. After the call, LabN sent me a list of suggested projects, so I built a ping application from scratch in C++ using raw sockets to prepare. I had my technical interview with one of LabN's engineers on May 26. LabN gave final approval on June 9, checked my references, and sent my offer on June 11. I signed it that day and started on June 15, about 2 months after I applied.
4) Which resources did you use to find your current experience?
Handshake
5) What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization?
What I enjoyed most was learning networking at a company that helps write the standards. My project was built on DetNet, an IETF standard, and LabN co-chairs the working group behind it. My favorite moment was a prediction that held up. Before running the lab, I wrote a Python model of how OSPF, a standard routing protocol, picks paths. It predicted that OSPF would quietly send both copies of each packet down the same path, even though my design needed them apart. I then reproduced that problem in 2 separate labs.
6) How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
I made the project's test results more trustworthy. I found 2 automated test suites that reported 128 passing checks while one path was dead and the network was losing 20% of its packets. The tests recorded numbers without checking them, so I rewrote them to fail on bad results. I also added 2 tests built to fail when redundancy breaks, which proves the suites can catch a real problem. Beyond testing.
7) What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience (i.e., Internship search, Resume, or Interview tips)?
Use Handshake and check your messages there often, because that is where LabN first reached out to me. If a company tells you what to prepare, do it. LabN sent a list of suggested projects, and I built one of them, a ping program written from scratch in C++. My goal was to be able to explain every part of it in my technical interview. On your resume, back each project with a number or a live link that a recruiter can check. Send a short thank-you after every interview, and have 3 references ready before the offer stage.