About Me

I am an Assistant Professor at the Data Science and Analytics Thrust（数据科学与分析学域）, Information Hub （信息枢纽）, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). I received my Ph.D. in 2024 from the University of Waterloo, where I was advised by Prof. Weiyi Shang. I hold a B.Eng. degree in Software Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. In 2023, I was a visiting researcher at University College London (UCL), hosted by Prof. Federica Sarro.

My current research focuses on AI for software engineering, especially LLMs and coding agents for code generation, software testing and debugging, logging, and performance optimization.

Openings: I have several openings for PhD students interested in coding LLMs and agents. Interested applicants are welcome to email me with their CV, transcript, and a brief statement of research interests.

Selected Publications

• ReLog: Execution-Aware Logging with Runtime Feedback for LLM-Oriented Debugging
  Xin Wang, Yang Feng, Xiaoqian Jiao, Yang Zhang, Zhenhao Li, Zishuo Ding^✉
  The 41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2026)
• Mathematically-Guided Detection of Floating-Point Errors
  Youshuai Tan, Zhanwei Zhang, Haonan Zhang, Lianyu Zheng, Zishuo Ding^✉, Jinfu Chen, Weiyi Shang
  The 35th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA 2026)
• Bridging User Feedback and System Diagnosis: Reproducing Mobile Performance Issues from Reviews
  Zhengquan Li, Zhenhao Li, Sidong Feng, Cuiyun Gao, Tao Zhang, Zishuo Ding^✉
  The 35th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA 2026)
• EffiHolmes: Differential Profiling-Guided Repository Level Time Inefficiency Fix Localization
  Haowen Yang, Yun Peng, Zishuo Ding^✉
  The 41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2026)
• ICE: Reducing Search Space for Error-inducing Input Detection
  Youshuai Tan, Zhanwei Zhang, Zishuo Ding^✉, Jinfu Chen, Weiyi Shang
  IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE 2026)
• A Multi-Language Perspective on the Robustness of LLM Code Generation
  Fazle Rabbi, Zishuo Ding, Jinqiu Yang
  Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE 2026)
• Towards More Accurate App Review Response Generation with Fine-Grained Filtering
  Zhengquan Li, Yao Li, Tao Zhang, Cuiyun Gao, Zishuo Ding
  ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM 2026)
• Towards Secure Logging: Characterizing and Benchmarking Logging Code Security Issues with LLMs
  He Yang Yuan^*, Xin Wang^*, Kundi Yao, An Ran Chen, Zishuo Ding^✉, Zhenhao Li^✉
  The 34th ACM SIGSOFT Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2026)
• LLM4Perf: Large Language Models Are Effective Samplers for Multi-Objective Performance Modeling
  Xin Wang, Zhenhao Li, Zishuo Ding^✉
  The 48th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2026)
• Who's to Blame? Rethinking the Brittleness of Automated Web GUI Testing from a Pragmatic Perspective
  Haonan Zhang, Kundi Yao, Zishuo Ding, Lizhi Liao, Weiyi Shang
  The 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2025)
• Defects4Log: Benchmarking LLMs for Logging Code Defect Detection and Reasoning
  Xin Wang, Zhenhao Li^✉, Zishuo Ding^✉
  The 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2025)
• Improving QA System Testing Efficiency Through White-Box Test Prioritization
  Hanying Shao, Zishuo Ding, Kundi Yao, Haonan Zhang and Weiyi Shang
  The 25th IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability, and Security (QRS 2025)
• Enhancing Log Sentiments: An Exploratory Study of Sentiments and Emotions with Software Logs
  Xiaohui Wang, Youshuai Tan, Zishuo Ding, Jinfu Chen, Jifeng Xuan, Weiyi Shang
  ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
• Towards Effectively Testing Machine Translation Systems from White-box Perspectives
  Hanying Shao, Zishuo Ding^✉, Weiyi Shang, Jinqiu Yang, Nikolaos Tsantalis
  Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE)
• Towards a Robust Waiting Strategy for Web GUI Testing for an Industrial Software System
  Haonan Zhang, Lizhi Liao, Zishuo Ding, Weiyi Shang, Nidhi Narula, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma and Sarah Sajedi
  The 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Industry Showcase (ASE 2024 - Industry Showcase Track)
• 🏆 GreenStableYolo: Optimizing Inference Time and Image Quality of Text-to-Image Generation
  Jingzhi Gong, Sisi Li, Giordano d’Aloisio, Zishuo Ding, Ye Yulong, William Langdon, Federica Sarro
  Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering (SSBSE 2024 - Challenge Track Winner)
• StableYolo: Optimizing Image Generation for Large Language Models
  Harel Berger, Aidan Dakhama, Zishuo Ding, Karine Even-Mendoza, David Kelly, Hector D. Menendez, Rebecca Moussa, Federica Sarro
  Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering (SSBSE 2023 - Challenge Track)
• LoGenText-Plus: Improving Neural Machine Translation-based Logging Texts Generation with Syntactic Templates
  Zishuo Ding, Yiming Tang, Xiaoyu Cheng, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang
  ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
• CoMSA: A modeling driven sampling approach for configuration performance testing
  Yuanjie Xia, Zishuo Ding^✉, Weiyi Shang
  The 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2023)
• IoPV: On Inconsistent Option Performance Variations
  Jinfu Chen, Zishuo Ding, Yiming Tang, Mohammed Sayagh, Heng Li, Bram Adams, Weiyi Shang
  The ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2023)
• On the Temporal Relations between Logging and Code
  Zishuo Ding, Yiming Tang, Yang Li, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang
  The 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023)
• Towards Learning Generalizable Code Embeddings using Task-agnostic Graph Convolutional Networks
  Zishuo Ding, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang, Tse-Hsun Peter Chen
  ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
• LoGenText: Automatically Generating Logging Texts Using Neural Machine Translation
  Zishuo Ding, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang
  The 29th IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER 2022)
• Can pre-trained code embeddings improve model performance? Revisiting the use of code embeddings in software engineering tasks
  Zishuo Ding, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang, Tse-Hsun Peter Chen
  Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE)
• 🏆 Towards the Use of the Readily Available Tests from the Release Pipeline as Performance Tests. Are We There Yet?
  ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award
  Zishuo Ding, Jinfu Chen, Weiyi Shang
  The 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2020)

^* equal contribution; ^✉ corresponding author.

Honors and Awards

• ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award, The 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2020)
• SSBSE 2024 Challenge Track Winner
• Faculty of Engineering Graduate Scholarship, University of Waterloo
• Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence Graduate Scholarship, Concordia University
• Carolyn and Brian Neysmith Graduate Scholarship, Concordia University
• Dr. T. Radhakrishnan In-Course Graduate Bursary in Computer Science, Concordia University
• ACM SIGSOFT CAPS Travel Awards, ICSE 2020, FSE 2022, ICSE 2023, ASE 2023, FSE 2023

Academic Services

• Program committee member: FSE 2026, ASE 2025, ASE 2024, ASE 2023 (Session Chair), MSR 2024 (Junior PC), AIWare 2024 (Challenge Track), ICPE 2024 (Data Challenge Track)
• Journal Reviewer: TSE, TOSEM, EMSE, JSS, ASE, STVR, TR

Education

• Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), University of Waterloo, 2024
• M.A.Sc. in Software Engineering, Concordia University, 2019
• B.Eng. in Software Engineering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, 2015

Research Fundings

• PI, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Young Scientists Fund (Category C)
• PI, CCF–Baidu Pinecone Fund (CCF-百度松果基金)
• PI, CCF–Huawei Poplar Forest Fund for Software Engineering (CCF-华为胡杨林软件工程专项)

Invited Talks

• 2021.07, Shenzhen University, China, Towards the Use of the Readily Available Tests from the Release Pipeline as Performance Tests,
• 2021.05, Wind River, Canada, Towards the Use of the Readily Available Tests from the Release Pipeline as Performance Tests. From Research to Industry