Jenna Russell

PhD Student at UMD ~ jennarus@umd.edu

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Welcome! I’m Jenna, a third-year Computer Science PhD student at the University of Maryland, College Park, where I am advised by Professor Mohit Iyyer. Prior to UMD, I spent a semester as a PhD student at University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I was also advised by Professor Iyyer.

My research examines AI’s growing influence on human writing and ideas. I study how AI usage can be detected and characterized, and what signals of human judgment and originality persist as AI-generated text becomes harder to distinguish from human text. This work informs broader questions of provenance, transparency, and creative ownership.

Prior to joining UMass, I was a data scientist for Bank of America, doing applied research for Erica Conversational AI. I completed my B.S. at Cornell University, majoring in Statistics and Information Science, and grew up in nearby Rochester, New York.

Outside of my PhD, I spend my time lifting, running, and reading. I usually read somewhere between 70-100 books a year. Check out my Goodreads! I also have a cat named Boo.

news

Sep 07, 2026 StoryScope will also be presented at TADA 2026, where it was selected for an oral presentation!
Jul 08, 2026 StoryScope has been accepted to COLM 2026!
Jun 29, 2026 I’ll be at ACL 2026 in San Diego July 4-8. Come say hi if you’re there!
May 18, 2026 Started my summer internship at Pangram in NYC!
May 17, 2026 Our AI News paper was selected for an oral presentation at ACL 2026!
Apr 06, 2026 Both Frankentext and AI News were accepted to the ACL Main Conference 2026.
Jul 27, 2025 I will be attending ACL in Vienna 07/27 - 08/01
Jul 08, 2025 One Ruler has been accepted to COLM 2025!
May 15, 2025 Human Detectors has been accepted to ACL Main 2025.
Jan 26, 2025 I’ve published my first paper, People who frequently use ChatGPT for writing tasks are accurate and robust detectors of AI-generated text.
Jan 11, 2025 We’ve moved to the CLIP Lab at UMD College Park.
Oct 06, 2024 I’m attending COLM this week.
Sep 02, 2024 I started my PhD at UMass Amherst!

selected publications

  1. COLM
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    Jenna RussellRishanth Rajendhran , Chau Minh Pham, Mohit Iyyer, and John Wieting
    2026
    TADA 2026: Selected for an oral presentation
  2. ACL
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    2026
    Selected for oral presentation
  3. ACL
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    Jenna RussellMarzena Karpinska, and Mohit Iyyer
    2025