I am a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). I am co-advised by Professors Gang Wang and Kirill Levchenko.

My research focuses on developing technical and human-centric solutions to address various types of online abuse. Through web scraping, large-scale user studies, and data analysis I aim to enhance automated detection systems while also investigating user behaviors to inform ethical guidelines and product policies for combating manipulation and misuse in digital platforms.

News

• [August 29, 2024] In an effort to create entertaining, yet educational introductory CS materials for kids, I commisioned the creation of a coloring book, ABCs of Computer Science! This is a great way to introduce your child to the world of S.T.E.M. with the goal being for them to learn CS concepts, connect them to real-world knowledge, and have fun while doing it. Click Here to Download!



• [February 19, 2024] On February 19 I hosted a virtual AI lab as a guest lecturer for students at Morehouse College. We talked about practical uses of AI models, their pros and cons, and inherent bias. What an amazing time to be at the forefront of technlogies like these!



• [February 07, 2024] Check out my latest blog post on Remote Attestation and my recent work in collabration on IBM, A Hitchhikers Guide to Remote Attestation. You'll learn about how you may protect your systems from unauthorized behavior!

• [November 21, 2023] I am pleased to annouce my paper, Does It Matter Who Said It? Exploring the Impact of Deepfake Profiles on User Perception Towards Disinformation has been accepted for publication at the 2024 International AAAI Conference ON Web And Social Media (ICWSM). Can't wait to join other passionate researchers in Buffalo, NY next Summer!

• [April 4, 2022] I am so excited and honored to have been awarded the NSF GRFP! To my friends, family, advisors, and peers thank you for your constant support!

Education

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 06/2020 - Present
  Ph.D. in Computer Science

• Spelman College, 08/2016 - 05/2020
  B.S. Computer Science

Publications

• Aiping Xiong, Haeseung Seo, Ester Chen, Margie Ruffin, Gang Wang, and Dongwon Lee. 2025. A Study of Training Strategies on Enhancing Human Detection of Deepfake Image. In 2025 International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM).

• Margie Ruffin, Haeseung Seo, Aiping Xiong, Gang Wang. 2024. Does It Matter Who Said It? Exploring the Impact of Deepfake Profiles on User Perception Towards Disinformation. In 2024 International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM).
  PDF | SLIDES

• Ashita Bawankule, David Hopping, Mike Tissenbaum, Howard Weatherspoon, and Margie Ruffin. 2023. Fostering Maker Identity and Collaboration: Affordances of the Connected Spaces Dashboard in Two Afterschool Makerspaces In Proceedings of Constructionism / FabLearn 2023, 8 pages.
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• Margie Ruffin, Kirill Levchenko, and Gang Wang. 2023. Explaining Why Fake Photos are Fake: Does It Work? In 2023 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP), 23 pages.
  PDF | SLIDES

• Margie Ruffin, Israel Lopez-Toldeo, Kirill Levchenko, and Gang Wang. 2022. Casing the Vault: Security Analysis of Vault Applications. In Proceedings of the 21st Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES ’22), November 7, 2022, Los Angeles, CA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages
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• Nias, J., Hampton, L., Sampson,P. and Ruffin, M. 2020. To Appear. Decolonizing Technologies for Preserving Cultural and Societal Diversity. CHI 2020 Extended Abstracts, April 25 - 30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA.
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• Margie Ruffin, Jaye Nias, Kayla Taylor, Gabrielle Singleton, and Amber Sylvain. 2020. Character Development to Facilitate Retention in a Storytelling Robot. In 2020 ACM Southeast Conference (ACMSE 2020), April 2–4, 2020, Tampa, FL, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3374135.3385315
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• Jaye Nias and Margie Ruffin. 2020. CultureBot: A Culturally Relevant Humanoid Robotic Dialogue Agent. In 2020 ACM Southeast Conference (ACMSE 2020), April 2–4, 2020, Tampa, FL, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3374135.3385306
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Research Experience

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Advisors Gang Wang and Kirill Levchenko -- Champaign, IL – Research Assistant | June 2020 – Present

• International Business Machines (IBM) | Advisors Gheorghe Almasi, Hubertus Franke, Hamid Adebayo -- Yorktown Heights, NY – Research Assistant | May 2023 – August 2023

• Lawrence Livermore National Lab | Advisor Brian Kelley -- Livermore, CA – Graduate Researcher | June 2020 – August 2021

• Georgia Tech Research Institute | Advisors Michael Brown and Brian Schultz -- Atlanta, GA – Student Researcher | October 2019 – May 2020

• Spelman College | Advisor Raquel Hill -- Atlanta, GA - Student Researcher | September 2019 – May 2020

• Spelman College | Advisor Jaye Nias -- Atlanta, GA - SpelBots Team Research Leader | January 2019 – May 2020

• Spelman College | Advisor Jaye Nias -- Atlanta, GA - Clair Booth Luce Research Fellow | September 2018 – May 2020

Honors and Awards

• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | 2022 – 2025
• Alfred P. Sloan Scholar | 2020 – 2025
• Grainger College of Engineering SURGE Fellowship | 2020 – 2025
• UIUC Graduate College Fellowship | 2020 – 2025
• Magna Cum Laude, Spelman College | 2020
• Phi Beta Kappa, Spelman College |2017 – 2020