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Bootcamp Down Under: Our Experience In Australia

By Cairenn Binder

In May of 2026, I had the incredible opportunity to head 鈥渄own under鈥� to Sydney, Australia with my colleague Tracie Boyle. Together with the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the New South Wales Police Force (NSWPF), we were to host a weeklong bootcamp event intended as hands-on training for law enforcement and undergraduate students seeking to enhance their IGG skills.

Little did we know that cross-cultural collaboration with our colleagues in Australia would leave us with as much of a learning experience as a teaching experience! Here鈥檚 a breakdown of how we spent our week in Sydney:

Sunday

After departing from New Jersey on Friday afternoon and suffering the grueling 24-hour trip to Sydney, we emerged from Sydney Airport on Sunday morning. One of our NSWPF colleagues graciously picked us up and transported us to our hotel which was located just across the street from our workplace for the week, the UTS.

Jet-lagged and exhausted, we knew we had no choice but to stay awake as long as possible in order to hit 鈥渞eset鈥� on our sleep schedules and adjust to Australian time ahead of our workweek. Thus, we set out to the Taronga Zoo where we spent hours walking around, checking out every animal enclosure, and enjoying the beautiful Australian 鈥渨inter鈥� weather (70s and sunny!).

Tracie + me at the entrance of Taronga Zoo.

In the afternoon, we briefly met with colleagues for a meal and then headed back to our hotel to get plenty of rest for the busy week ahead.

Monday

Fairly well rested, we headed to campus for the first time on Monday morning to begin casework with our Aussie colleagues. Upon our arrival to campus, we were introduced to the bootcamp participants including undergraduate forensic science students from UTS as well as members of law enforcement and forensic agencies from across Australia and New Zealand! After some minor housekeeping and admin work, our students were introduced to their case: an unidentified human remains case from New Jersey.

Tracie and I provided some cultural context regarding the location where the unidentified person was found, and then introduced the various software tools we would use for tree-building and genealogy. Then, they were off! Adjunct Associate Professor Nathan Scudder (UTS and Australian Army) had taken the time to divide the students into small cross-agency workgroups, which was a brilliant way to facilitate collaborative learning. We were immediately impressed with the UTS students鈥� knowledge of IGG as well as their dogged research skills. While the law enforcement participants had varying degrees of genealogical research experience, each brought valuable perspectives to the investigation and were quick learners when it came to IGG research.聽

In the afternoon, I provided two lectures to facilitate learning about IGG subjects relating to the case the students were tasked with. The group also took the opportunity for a photo op next to the double helix staircase 鈥� did I mention that the UTS campus is phenomenally gorgeous?

Our bootcamp group at the base of the double helix staircase.

Looking up towards the top of the staircase!

By the end of the day, we had covered a lot of ground! That evening, we joined our new colleagues for a quiz night at a dungeons-and-dragons themed restaurant 鈥� right up my alley! While the days at UTS were filled with learning on both sides of the equation, the networking events in the evening were wonderful opportunities to learn more about Australian culture.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, the team started with a review of the casework so far and then dove into a lecture and demonstration on segment analysis. This provided our bootcamp team members with specific areas of focus to search for and identify potential most-recent-common-ancestors (MRCAs). On this day, the bootcampers were able to identify the likely area of origin of the decedent through their genealogical findings.聽

Preparing to teach Day 2 of Bootcamp!

In the evening, we were joined by our colleagues for a pan-Asian feast at Sydney鈥檚 Spice Alley. Delicious!

Happy and full after our meal at Spice Alley!

奥别诲苍别蝉诲补测听

During day three of bootcamp, the team really turned up the heat! Multiple most-recent-common-ancestor (MRCA) couples were identified, but as occurs in many cases, we found some complicating factors which impacted our ability to build the trees of some of the DNA matches for the case. However, our bootcampers were not deterred 鈥� if anything, they became more determined in the face of adversity!

A moment of intense research during bootcamp.

In addition to casework, the bootcampers were provided with lectures from Professors David Gurney and Nathan Scudder on law and ethics, as well as from Tracie Boyle on OSINT tools.

Although we were exhausted by midweek, we couldn鈥檛 pass up the opportunity to attend a lecture hosted by the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society at Western Sydney University. This was an important networking opportunity and we were delighted to meet a fellow New Jersey native – a student conducting her postdoctoral studies in Sydney!

Thursday

After a breakthrough with a difficult DNA match, the bootcamp team became refocused on several families of interest and began the painstaking process of descendancy research. Endogamy complicated the research process at this stage, and together we commiserated about the difficulties of this case.聽

Tracie pointing out an area of focus in a family tree.

Learning that we have more commonalities than differences, I provided a lecture on special populations and provided case examples involving breakthroughs achieved through outside-the-box research methods.

Hubbub around a computer after a critical finding is made.

That evening, we had our biggest night out yet, enjoying a meal and meaningful conversation at Darling Harbour.

Friday

I can鈥檛 lie – on Friday, I was stressed as I was beginning to think that the team might not solve the case! We had only until noon to work with the bootcampers, and although we knew what families the decedent was descended from, we seemed to be no closer to uncovering their identity. Having encountered adoptions and other family tree complications in the past, Tracie and I wondered if this was the complicating factor for our selected case. We ended the day without resolving the case, although we had a delightful morning presenting the participants with certificates and exchanging goodbyes with our newfound friends.

Tracie and I with our colleagues from UTS and NSWPF after a great week.

That evening 鈥� our last in Sydney 鈥� Tracie and I enjoyed the Vivid Sydney festival of lights. It was the perfect way to end the (almost) perfect trip 鈥� and could have only been improved by news of a solve鈥�!

Me + Tracie on our boat tour in front of Sydney Opera House.

Beautiful Sydney during the Vivid festival!

Saturday and Beyond

On Saturday morning, we sadly headed back to the United States, determined to reevaluate the case and see if we could find something that had not been discovered at bootcamp. However, as we adjusted our sleep schedules again and I headed out for another conference in Indiana, we found we didn鈥檛 need to take a second look!

While we were traveling, one of the bootcampers found the missing piece of the puzzle – and found a candidate for the UHR we鈥檇 all tried to identify all week! Days later, we met with the bootcampers once more 鈥� this time via an online meeting 鈥� to present their candidate to the investigating agency.聽

We couldn鈥檛 be prouder of the bootcampers and our co-facilitators who spent a week with us in Sydney. They are tenacious researchers, dynamic thinkers, and bright, friendly, lovely individuals. Before we even left Sydney, we were already anxious to return 鈥� and I remain hopeful that we will be back to hold another bootcamp event in the future.

Our Takeaways:

• During our trip, I learned so much about the differences in policing between the United States and Australia. There are some privacy laws in Australia that are more restrictive than the US, but also some areas where law enforcement is less restricted in investigating or arresting individuals.
• There are also many similarities between our countries. One that was particularly notable to me is that Australia, New Zealand and the United States are all homes to Indigenous populations who have been deeply affected by European colonization. This interacts with IGG in many ways, including how cases are investigated, how DNA drives may be viewed, and how difficult it is to identify DNA contributors 鈥� and leads to challenges for IGG practitioners both in the US and in Australia and New Zealand.聽
• The vibes are immaculate! Sydney is a wonderful city filled with friendly people. The UTS Centre for Forensic Science is a world class center for forensic science research and education and we were delighted to collaborate with their faculty and staff to host this once in a lifetime event.聽

We look forward to future collaborations with our colleagues in Australia and New Zealand, including further bootcamp events. Until next time鈥� G鈥檇ay and cheers to our mates in Australia!聽

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