PhD Student · Tufts University
Paulina Trifonova
I am a PhD student in Computer Science at Tufts University, advised by Diane Souvaine. My research interests lie in computational geometry and computational biology. I completed my undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Mathematics at Swarthmore College.
Affiliation
Tufts University
Interests
Comp. geometry, comp. biology
Publications
Misinformation, Fraud, and Stereotyping: Towards a Typology of Harm Caused by Deepfakes
Paulina Trifonova & Sukrit Venkatagiri
CSCW Companion '24 · San Jose, Costa Rica · ACM, 2024
doi:10.1145/3678884.3685938 ↗
Curriculum vitae
Education, research, and teaching
Education
Tufts University2025 – present
PhD, Computer Science
Advised by Diane Souvaine. Research in computational geometry and computational biology.
Swarthmore College2021 – 2025
B.A., Computer Science and Mathematics · GPA: 3.74
Research Experience
Research Assistant — HCI / Deepfakes2021 – 2025
Collective Resilience Lab, Swarthmore CS (advisor: Sukrit Venkatagiri)
- Systematically collated and classified 536 real-world deepfake incidents across 54 countries and 31 months.
- Published at CSCW 2024; presented poster at Swarthmore Sigma Xi Poster Session.
Research Assistant — CombinatoricsMay – Aug 2023
Swarthmore Math Department (advisor: Pat Devlin)
- Researched combinatorial game theory; co-authored arXiv preprint on Chomp and Nim.
- Presented findings at Swarthmore Sigma Xi Poster Session.
Research Assistant — CS EducationJan – May 2023
Swarthmore CS Department (advisors: Kevin Webb, Tia Newhall)
- Designed practice exercises in PreTeXT for the Dive Into Systems online textbook.
Teaching
TA — CS10: Intro to Computer ScienceTufts, 2025–26
TA — CS135: Machine LearningTufts, 2025–26
TA — CS60: Discrete MathematicsTufts, Summer 2026
TA — Intro to Computer Systems (Ninja)Swarthmore, Spring 2023
Weekly three-hour study sessions; prepared lab solution presentations.
TA — Calculus, Linear Algebra, Discrete MathSwarthmore, 2023–24
Three semesters of weekly study sessions across calculus, linear algebra, and discrete math. Peer Tutor Certified.
Awards
- Frances Velay Women's Science Research Fellowship
- Swarthmore College Summer Research Fellowship
- Lang Center Faculty Lead Engaged Research Grant