Final answer:
The Internet originated from a project known as ARPANET, which was initiated by the U.S. Department of Defense's agency DARPA.
Step-by-step explanation:
The development of the Internet has its origins in a project initiated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. The project that led to the development of the Internet was ARPANET, which evolved in the 1960s and 1970s into the high-tech communication system that would later become the global Internet. ARPANET's primary goal was to connect government facilities and research universities for official communications, and it was central to the invention of many technologies that formed the basis for today's Internet. Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is c. DARPA.