january 18, 2021

The third round of the class covering the internet’s domain name system, DNS, at the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, started in January 2021. The class is a cooperation between KTH and the Swedish Internet Foundation and it has been highly appreciated by the students.

Since 2019 the Swedish Internet Foundation offers a class about the internet’s domain name system at The Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, in Stockholm. For two months the students dive deeper into DNS. The class generates 7,5 higher education credits and it is an optional part of the third year program for university engineers in computer technology and electrical engineering.

Education a part of securing the internet in Sweden

The Swedish Internet Foundation is responsible for the Swedish top-level domain .se and the operation of the top-level domain .nu. The domain name system is an important part of the foundation’s work with a safe and secure internet.

– We are happy to contribute to quality university education in a very specialized field. The cooperation with KTH gives us the opportunity to spread our knowledge of DNS to future engineers and thereby raise the status of DNS. We also see this as a way for us to contribute to a better internet in Sweden, says Mats Dufberg, DNS specialist.

The content of the class has been developed by DNS specialists Mats Dufberg and Mats Strålberg at the Swedish Internet Foundation. Mats Dufberg is also the lecturer while Mats Strålberg and Jonas Andersson, also DNS specialists at the Swedish Internet Foundation, are responsible for the labs.

The class aims to give theoretical insights into how the domain name system is constructed and functions as well as practical skills to set up, manage, and troubleshoot name servers and other components of DNS. The combination of theory and practice is a key to a career path for those who want to work with communications solutions and the infrastructure of the internet.

– The students who take the class will be well prepared to learn the complex aspects of DNS. In return employers get the opportunity to recruit new employees with deep knowledge about DNS, which unfortunately is unusual today, says Mats Strålberg, also DNS specialist at the Swedish Internet Foundation.

Good response from the students

Around 40 students have finished the class so far, and the student evaluations of the first two rounds of the class are positive. Both the students and Ibrahim Orhan, who is responsible for computer engineering and the class examiner at KTH, express their appreciation for the lecturers and the cooperation with the Swedish Internet Foundation.

– This class is a good example of a win-win cooperation. Both the class content and the lecturers from the Swedish internet Foundation have been highly appreciated in our students’ evaluations. This kind of cooperation where an organization or a company offers a full class is very unique in our program. We are very pleased to offer this kind of deep knowledge to our students and look forward to continuing our work together, says Ibrahim Orhan.

The DNS class for 2021 started on January 18:th and is for the first time ever offered completely online.

– The students prefer to take the class in a physical classroom and they find online classes a bit boring, but personally I feel exited to test this new way of working. The pandemic is of course a negative thing but in a crisis you are often forced to find new ways to work and it forces you to develop your business. If this turns out well it could be a way for us to offer our competens and this DNS class to other technical colleges and universities in Sweden, says Mats Dufberg.

Find more information at the KTH web site and details about the class "Internet's Domain Name System".

The Swedish Internet Foundation works with DNS in many ways, for example through DNS Labs.