FBI Honors Internship

1
FBI Honors Internship

• Criminal Justice Information Services Division
• Clarksburg, WV
• Brandon Douthit-Wood

2
FBI Honors Internship

• 57 undergraduate and graduate students from
  across the U.S.
• One from each FBI field office
• Background check for Top Secret clearance
• Internship lasted 10 weeks, from the beginning of
  June through mid August.
• Each intern was assigned to one of three
  locations Washington D.C., Quantico, VA, or
  Clarksburg, WV.

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Criminal Justice Information Services Division

• I was assigned to the Criminal Justice
  Information Services Division (CJIS) in
  Clarksburg, WV, along with 6 of the other
  interns.
• Within CJIS, I was assigned to the Technology
  Integration and Support Unit (TISU).
• Software Development
• Help-desk Support
• Network Security

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Criminal Justice Information Services Division

• Major Systems
• Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification
  System (IAFIS)
• Receives 55,000 requests daily, with
  approximately 2 hour response time
• National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
• Criminal records database
• Handles 2.5 million searches daily
• National Instant Criminal Background Check System
  (NICS)
• Used to check for criminal record of anyone
  trying to purchase a firearm.
• Approximately 2 ½ minute response time

5
Technology Integration and Support Unit

• Primary task was a software development project
• Worked together with one of the other interns
• Assigned two senior software engineers as mentors
• Assigned to design, develop, document and
  distribute a complete database application
• Received a single page memo for the initial
  project specifications
• Developed application with Visual Basic and
  Microsoft Access
• Also had to implement a number of security
  features

6
Technology Integration and Support Unit

• TISUs Software Development Philosophy
• Keep the customer an integral part of the
  development process
• Meet with the customers weekly to review the
  current state of the software
• Keep phone calls to a minimum meet face-to-face
  whenever possible
• Keep it simple, stupid
• Having the software easy to use almost as
  important as having it meet all specifications

7
Technology Integration and Support Unit

• Problems we faced
• A small change from the customer sometimes
  equals a big change in the software
• Getting our users to test the software at their
  own computers

8
Technology Integration and Support Unit

• Things we learned
• Dont count on your initial design to be perfect
• Sometimes normalization can go too far
• Can make writing queries difficult
• Difficult to add new fields later
• Use temporary tables
• Greatly improved the performance of running
  queries against linked tables

9
Technology Integration and Support Unit

• Other assignments
• Installing configuring workstations
• Upgrading older workstations from token-ring to
  Ethernet
• Assisting with help-desk calls
• Changing out routers
• Upgrading servers
• Running and terminating fiber optic and CAT-5
  cable

10
FBI Honors Internship

• Other activities
• Visit to FBI Academy
• Tour of laboratories and special agent training
  facilities
• Tour of Pittsburgh field office
• Evidence collection
• Security briefings
• Trip to firing range