It would be difficult for an unknown individual or unknown/untrusted organisation.
It's less difficult for a respected university willing to sacrifice its reputation.
The patches for the study were submitted from Gmail addresses. It wasn't tied to the university and didn't even use university email addresses. I don't know why people keep repeating this misinformation, including kernel developers.
That's not one of the emails involved in the study. It was an inaccurate claim. I suggest not spreading misinformation and libel.
Kernel maintainers being dishonest and misrepresenting good faith patches from students as part of a past study makes the project look bad.
Again, the patches involved in that study were submitted from Gmail addresses. The study is a past event. You're linking a recent patch from a student not involved in it. It's misinformation and is dishonest. It is making Linux look increasingly bad in this situation, not better.
Kernel maintainers being consistently dishonest taints the project. Misrepresenting what happened and making unjustified accusations against good faith contributions from students isn't a good look.
Slandering students there for something they didn't do really doesn't look good.
I suggest doing basic research into what happened before making accusations that a student submitted patches in bad faith and that they're lying about it.
Damage done to the project from this situation is primarily caused by the misinformation and dishonesty from maintainers.