Artificial Intelligence Forensics and Investigations

All applicants must be current employees of a law enforcement organisation (LE) working in an investigative role. LE includes any organisation that has responsibility for the enforcement of national or local legislation such as:

• Local, National, or Federal Police Forces
• Government law enforcement agencies
• Immigration & Border Control, Revenue & Customs
• Defence forces including military police
• International Police organisations (Europol, Interpol, etc)
• Regulatory Enforcement agencies etc
• Public prosecutors / Attorney General's office

Although it is preferred that applicants hold a primary degree in computer science or a relevant subject, this is not a compulsory requirement and applicants working in the field of digital forensic investigations in law enforcement for more than 2 years will be eligible for the course without a third level degree. 

Module Dependencies/ Prerequisites:

• Fundamentals on Cybersecurity or Digital Forensics (Required).
• Background knowledge on Data Analysis or Machine Learning (Recommended).
• Programming Skills: Python for data manipulation and ML library usage (Recommended).

On successful completion of this module the learner will be able to:

1. Understand foundation concepts of AI.
2. Apply AI methods to gather, analyze, and interpret digital evidence in investigative scenarios.
3. Investigate AI systems (including Generative AI), identifying biases, verifying system integrity, and explaining decision processes using modern XAI (Explainable AI) techniques.
4. Evaluate legal, ethical, and regulatory requirements governing AI usage in investigations.

Indicative Content:

1. AI for Investigations

• • Data acquisition/pre-processing from heterogeneous sources
  • Automated evidence extraction (images, documents, logs)
  • ML and GenAI techniques in forensic contexts
  • NLP for eDiscovery, social media intelligence (OSINT)

2. Investigating AI Models

• • Overview of ML architectures (including Transformers for Generative AI)
  • Bias and fairness auditing frameworks (metrics, data imbalance)
  • Adversarial attacks on AI systems (data poisoning, model inversion)
  • Explainable AI (XAI) techniques (LIME, SHAP, etc.)

3. GenAI-Specific Investigations

• • Large language models (GPT-style), diffusion models (e.g., Stable
  • Diffusion)
  • Detecting harmful outputs (disinformation, deepfakes)
  • Watermarking, content tracing, and forensic signatures in GenAI outputs
  • Ethical and regulatory constraints (proposed AI Acts, data protection, content moderation)

4. Case Studies & Tools

• • Fraud detection, insider threat analysis, corporate compliance
  • AI-driven policing or intelligence gathering
  • OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) tools and specialized forensic platforms

Benefits will vary based on student background and employment both current and prospective. 

• For law enforcement officers, having a qualification to professionalise their training has the additional advantage of adding credibility to their testimony as expert witnesses. 
• Career development possibilities may be enhanced. 
• Opportunity to gain knowledge in a subject area that is of increasing importance in all sectors and apply that knowledge in criminal investigation.

This course is delivered online with an end of term, in-person exam. 

Lectures are pre-recorded and provided online via a virtual online learning environment. 

Exercises, reading, assignments and projects are conducted online and in our virtual labs. 

Students are required to come to Dublin or another UCD exam centre (Netherlands, North America and Hong Kong) to complete in-person examinations. 

All modules are examined in May in one of our five exam centres internationally. Please note that an exam centre venue will be subject to availability and demand.

Student Effort Hours:

Autonomous Student Learning (98 Hours)

Lectures (24 Hours)

Practical Learning (48 Hours)

Online Learning (30 Hours)

Total Hours over 12 weeks: (200 Hours)

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

• Active/task-based learning; 
• Lectures; 
• Critical writing; 
• Reflective learning; 
• Lab work; 
• Problem-based learning; 
• Case-based learning.

All applicants must be current employees of a law enforcement organisation (LE) working in an investigative role. Applicants do not have to be a sworn officer. LE includes any organisation that has responsibility for the enforcement of national or local legislation such as:

• Local, National, or Federal Police Forces
• Government law enforcement agencies
• Immigration & Border Control, Revenue & Customs
• Defence forces including military police
• International Police organisations (Europol, Interpol, etc)
• Regulatory Enforcement agencies etc
• Public prosecutors / Attorney General's office

Although it is preferred that applicants hold a primary degree in computer science or a relevant subject, this is not a compulsory requirement and applicants working in the field of digital forensic investigations in law enforcement for more than 2 years will be eligible for the course without a third level degree. 

Each applicant will be assessed on a case by case basis. Students are also required to fulfil UCD’s English Language Requirements (see http://www.ucd.ie/international/study-at-ucd-global/ucdenglishlanguagerequirements/)

Assessment Strategy:

• Exam (In-person): (70%)
• Assignment: (30%) Two assignments (10% and 20% in Week 4 and Week 8 respectively)

Feedback individually to students, post-assessment for in-term assessment and by request from student for exam, post final grade release.

This micro-credential is stackable with other micro-credentials, COMP47510 and COMP41870 for a 30 credits Graduate Certificate award in Forensic Computing and Cybercrime Investigation (F007).

On successful completion of this micro-credential, you will receive credits as per the European Credit and Transfer System. These credits are recognised by the awarding institution as credits aligned to learning completed at postgraduate level.

If you have any questions about this micro-credential, or would like to speak to a UCD staff member, please contact (opens in a new window)microcredentials@ucd.ie.