We have a thriving intern program and are pleased to welcome even more talented students to the OPNFV community! OPNFV interns work directly with the community and receive hands-on development experience in NFV. Each intern works closely with an active OPNFV developer as their mentor on a project that suited interest and community need. This blog series aims to showcase these interns and the projects they work on, the mentors who are helping with their professional development, and their experience working in an open source community to help accelerate NFV.
If you are interested in becoming an OPNFV intern, please email internship@opnfv.org .
About Aakash (in his own words):
I am an undergraduate student at IIIT-H (International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, India), pursuing a major in Computer Science. My research interest mostly lies in Computer Vision, and I am an undergraduate researcher at the CVIT lab at my university.
I am very much interested in NFV, especially OPNFV, since it is disrupting the networking world.
How did you hear about OPNFV and what got you interested in this internship?
I first heard about OPNFV from one of my university seniors. When I looked into this in more detail, I found it quite interesting. The idea of NFV is something unique, and something that has a lot of benefits. Wanting to be a part of this revolution, and learning all about it, was the thing that interested me most – in addition to the fact that I will get to work with such an amazing community!
Can you talk about your experience working on an open source project? Any previous experiences you can share or key learnings from working on OPNFV so far?
This is my first experience working in open source! I am grateful that my first dabble in open source is here with OPNFV. The vibe of the community and the interactions, and everyday opportunities for learning is hard to ignore. My experience here has been superb!
What’s the best thing you’ve learned from your internship?
Apart from all the technical knowledge gained, I think the most important thing that I learned so far is how to work with a global team. My communication skills and ability to deliver my thought process and intentions clearly have vastly improved.
Who is your mentor and what’s the experience been like?
My mentor was Mr. Narinder Gupta and my experience with him has been phenomenal! His ability to look at a problem and analyse it in the right way is something that I admire. Interacting with him has taught me a lot, both in terms of technical knowledge and in terms of social skills.
What’s your advice to other aspiring open source folks out there?
Things may seem overwhelming at first, and it may seem like there are a lot of people talking about a lot of stuff which you have no clue about, but go on and be bold! Don’t be scared; ask questions if you do not know something. This is a crucial step. Things will eventually fall into place, and then you, too, will talk about things you thought you never understood!
What gets you jazzed to work with open source? (e.g., listening to music, drinking coffee, chatting in IRC, etc.)?
I’d say listening to music.
Being in open source allows you to work from anywhere in the world and interact with lots of different people. What have you found most surprising about the open source developer community?
The helpful nature of everyone around, and the extent to which they offer help, is something I found extremely surprising. In a good way, of course!
What do you want to do next? What is your dream job?
Well, what I want to do next with respect to OPNFV is to keep contributing! On the dream job front, I have not yet decided that far ahead, but I am inclined towards research.