Trial lecture
“DNS Security”
Time and place: June 12, 2026 11:15 AM. Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus.
Main research findings
Internet standards define how systems communicate, but they rarely explain why they were designed in a certain way. The ideas and discussions behind important decisions are often buried in long email threads and are hard to find. This makes it difficult for people in education, industry, and research to understand, maintain, and improve these standards.
This thesis shows that modern language models can help recover and explain this hidden reasoning. First, this work builds new datasets that link design decisions with the discussions that shaped them. Then, it develops methods to find relevant explanations and generate clear answers to questions such as: “Why was this decision made?”
The results show that these models can uncover and organise the reasoning behind complex technical standards. This makes the development process more transparent, easier to follow, and more efficient.
This work is important for education, industry, and research. It can help new contributors understand standards faster, support better decision-making, and reduce errors in implementation. In the long term, it can make the development of Internet technologies more open, reliable, and collaborative.
Adjudication committee
- Dr. Ignacio Castro, Queen Mary University of London, UK
- Dr. Yehia Elkhatib, University of Glasgow, UK
- Professor Sabita Maharjan, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
Professor Michael Welzl, University of Oslo, Norway
Associate Professor Andrey Kutuzov, University of Oslo, Norway
Researcher Dr. Nikolay Arefyev, University of Oslo, Norway
Chair of defence
- Professor Dag Langmyhr, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
Contact information at Department: Mozhdeh Sheibani Harat