Veracity is a firm supporter of providing opportunities for students through the use of internships and they are an important part of our business practice.

For Veracity’s CMO Mike Townend, interns potentially bring a different perspective to the company.

“We help encourage students to experience the real business world, sparking their imagination and potentially opening different areas of interest,” he said.

Veracity is pleased to be supporting the universities and students in our local communities – West Yorkshire and Southampton – by offering them internships with us.

Recently we have had Adithya Pradeep, a third year student of Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence (MEng) at the University of Southampton on an internship working on our Veracity project.

We caught up with Adithya to find out how they’d become involved in the Veracity internships scheme and how they thought it would benefit them in the future.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you hope to do once you’ve finished your degree?

I have a passion for Artificial Intelligence and machine learning and their countless applications. Although I have not narrowed down a particular aspect of machine learning I would like to pursue, I have a particular interest in pursuing a career in machine learning applications in Finance for fraud detection or drug discovery in healthcare.

How did the Veracity internship come about, did you apply for it or was it something that was offered to you?

The Veracity internship was something I applied to at the end of June, after numerous rejections over the year I told myself to have one last go in June and I got offered a place at Veracity! 

I found out about the Veracity internship through an email sent to my university email by UoS Internships in one of their regular newsletters. 

I found that the issues Veracity was helping tackle were not only fascinating, but vital in today’s world. I instantly applied to Veracity and got offered an interview after which I was offered a place.

What have you been doing during your internship? How is the research related to your degree studies?

My work has involved researching to find potential partner organisations for Veracity that offer complementary solutions to provide clients with maximum protection against bots and fraudsters.

Throughout my internship, I have helped with analysing the market opportunity for both Veracity’s click fraud solution and Veracity.

During my second year at university, I had done modules on cyber security, and machine learning and gained good experience being a machine learning researcher at my university’s artificial intelligence society. 

The work I have undertaken at Veracity has complemented and reinforced this learning greatly, as I have had a chance to see the application of these concepts in the real world, especially how they all come together. 

Understanding how bot detection software works and is developed, both at Veracity and other organisations, has shown me an incredible application of machine learning in cyber security (more specifically, fraud detection and prevention) which has led to a newfound interest in pursuing a career in this field after my studies.

How have you found taking part in one of Veracity’s internships? Do you think it will be beneficial for you when it comes to searching for a job after your degree?

I have thoroughly enjoyed the internship. It has been an incredible experience to work with such wonderful and brilliant people. 

The research I have undertaken as part of the internship has given me an incredible opportunity to go into great depth regarding fraud detection and mitigation software which has been a great complement to my studies and past experience. I have gained experience working in an award-winning, innovative organisation offering cutting-edge Martech solutions which is a brilliant personal achievement and a great honour.

I think the internship at Veracity will play a vital role in shaping my future as it has sparked a flame in me for exploring opportunities in the fraud detection and mitigation field. 

It has opened my eyes to an issue that I have always overlooked as a regular internet user and given me a chance to see the impact of bots and fraudsters on the many vital services offered by companies spanning all industries. 

Furthermore, the experience I have gained while working with Veracity will be invaluable regardless of where I end up in the future. Whether it be the research skills I have refined throughout my internship or the intricate knowledge I have gained about bots, attacks that can be executed using bots, and the solutions to these issues, everything I have learned will be of great help when called upon in the future.

Any advice you’d give to someone if they were offered an internship with Veracity?

My advice to someone who is offered an internship with Veracity would be to enjoy it thoroughly and treat it as an invaluable learning opportunity and a stepping-stone.  Don’t be afraid to ask any questions as everyone is extremely friendly and helpful. 

The work being done at Veracity is fascinating so definitely take the time to really learn about the products and how they tackle the issues they are made for!

Start with Veracity

Get started with Veracity by taking advantage of a free traffic audit on your paid campaigns. 

With click fraud detection and mitigation across search and social, Veracity feeds other parts of the Martech stack with better quality data, to enable improved analytics, decision-making and results.

For this digital agency client, Veracity detected bot activity on the campaigns at an average of 28% and this reduced to 16% bot activity just two weeks into using Veracity following the traffic audit. 

That’s 12% more humans engaging with their ads, resulting in an uplift in conversions and 25% increase in cost per visitor.

15th Mar 2024