Publications

2026

Ecosystem of Large Language Models for Code.
Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Premkumar T. Devanbu, David Lo.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 35(1), 2026.

Automated TEE Adaptation with LLMs: Identifying, Transforming, and Porting Sensitive Functions in Programs.
Ruidong Han, Zhou Yang, Chengyan Ma, Ye Liu, Yuqing Niu, Siqi Ma, Debin Gao, David Lo.
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2026.

Watermarking LLM Agent Trajectories.
Wenlong Meng, Chen Gong, Terry Yue Zhuo, Fan Zhang, Kecen Li, Zheng Liu, Zhou Yang, Chengkun Wei, Wenzhi Chen.
arXiv preprint, 2026.

Hidden Licensing Risks in the LLMware Ecosystem.
Bo Wang, Yueyang Chen, Jieke Shi, Minghui Li, Yunbo Lyu, Yinan Wu, Youfang Lin, Zhou Yang.
arXiv preprint, 2026.

Scrub It Out! Erasing Sensitive Memorization in Code Language Models via Machine Unlearning.
Zhaoyang Chu, Yao Wan, Zhikun Zhang, Di Wang, Zhou Yang, Hongyu Zhang, Pan Zhou, Xuanhua Shi, Hai Jin, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2026.

Training on Clean Data but Getting Backdoored Models! A Poisoning Attack on Code Encoders.
Yiran Xiao, Xiangyue Liu, Zhou Yang, Lili Bo, Xiaobing Sun.
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2026.

Quality Assurance for Artificial Intelligence: A Study of Industrial Concerns, Challenges and Best Practices.
Chenyu Wang, Zhou Yang, Ze Shi Li, Daniela Damian, David Lo.
International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) 2026.

Towards Efficient Code LLM Inference with Quantization and Compilation-Time Optimization.
Jieke Shi, Junda He, Zhou Yang, Chengran Yang, Mykhailo Klymenko, Thong Hoang, Sherry (Xiwei) Xu, Zhenchang Xing, David Lo.
ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE) 2026.

Automated Diagnosis and Testing of Game Compatibility Layers.
Hanzheng Dai.
ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE) 2026 Doctoral Symposium.

Finding Memory Leaks in C/C++ Programs via Neuro-Symbolic Augmented Static Analysis.
Huihui Huang, Jieke Shi, Bo Wang, Zhou Yang, David Lo.
arXiv preprint, 2026.

2025

Efficient and Green Large Language Models for Software Engineering: Literature Review, Vision, and the Road Ahead.
Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, David Lo.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 34(5), 2025.

Prioritizing Speech Test Cases.
Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Muhammad Hilmi Asyrofi, Bowen Xu, Xin Zhou, DongGyun Han, David Lo.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 34(4), 2025.

Finding Safety Violations of AI-Enabled Control Systems through the Lens of Synthesized Proxy Programs.
Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Junda He, Bowen Xu, Dongsun Kim, DongGyun Han, David Lo.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 34(7), 2025.

Mut4All: Fuzzing Compilers via LLM-Synthesized Mutators Learned from Bug Reports.
Bo Wang, Pengyang Wang, Chong Chen, Ming Deng, Jieke Shi, Qi Sun, Chengran Yang, Youfang Lin, Zhou Yang, Junjie Chen, Jun Sun, David Lo.
arXiv preprint, 2025.

YourCoLo: Leveraging One-to-Many Relationships and Inter-Code Connections for User Review-Based Code Localization.
Kuo Chi, Changan Niu, Zhou Yang, Chuanyi Li, Yi Feng, Jidong Ge, Bin Luo, David Lo, Vincent Ng.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2025.

PTM4Tag+: Tag Recommendation of Stack Overflow Posts with Pre-trained Models.
Junda He, Bowen Xu, Zhou Yang, DongGyun Han, Chengran Yang, Jiakun Liu, Zhipeng Zhao, David Lo.
Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), 30(1), 2025.

"My productivity is boosted, but ..." Demystifying Users' Perception on AI Coding Assistants.
Yunbo Lyu, Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Jianming Chang, Yue Liu, David Lo.
International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2025.
🏆ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award

Backdoors in Code Summarizers: How Bad Is It?
Chenyu Wang, Zhou Yang, Yaniv Harel, David Lo.
International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2025.

Token Sugar: Making Source Code Sweeter for LLMs through Token-Efficient Shorthand.
Zhensu Sun, Chengran Yang, Xiaoning Du, Zhou Yang, Li Li, David Lo.
International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2025.

Do Existing Testing Tools Really Uncover Gender Bias in Text-to-Image Models?
Yunbo Lyu, Zhou Yang, Yuqing Niu, Jing Jiang, David Lo.
ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM MM) 2025.

How Does Quantization Impact Privacy Risk on LLMs for Code?
Md Nazmul Haque, Hua Yang, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu.
International Conference on AI-powered Software (AIware) 2025.

SLICEMATE: Accurate and Scalable Static Program Slicing via LLM-Powered Agents.
Jianming Chang, Jieke Shi, Yunbo Lyu, Xin Zhou, Lulu Wang, Zhou Yang, Bixin Li, David Lo.
arXiv preprint, 2025.

Learning From the Best: What Makes Popular Hugging Face Models? A Registered Report.
Yinan Wu, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Bo Wang, Xuan-Bach D. Le, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME) 2025 Registered Reports.

Synthesizing Efficient and Permissive Programmatic Runtime Shields for Neural Policies.
Jieke Shi, Junda He, Zhou Yang, Đorđe Žikelić, David Lo.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2025.

2024

Robustness, Security, Privacy, Explainability, Efficiency, and Usability of Large Language Models for Code.
Zhou Yang, Zhensu Sun, Terry Yue Zhuo, Premkumar Devanbu, David Lo.
arXiv preprint, 2024.

Unveiling Memorization in Code Models.
Zhou Yang, Zhipeng Zhao, Chenyu Wang, Jieke Shi, Dongsun Kim, DongGyun Han, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2024.

Gotcha! This Model Uses My Code! Evaluating Membership Leakage Risks in Code Models.
Zhou Yang, Zhipeng Zhao, Chenyu Wang, Jieke Shi, Dongsun Kim, DongGyun Han, David Lo.
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 50(12), 2024.

Curiosity-Driven Testing for Sequential Decision-Making Process.
Junda He, Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Chengran Yang, Kisub Kim, Bowen Xu, Xin Zhou, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2024.

Greening Large Language Models of Code.
Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Hong Jin Kang, Bowen Xu, Junda He, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Engineering, Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS) 2024.

Classifying Source Code: How Far Can Compressor-based Classifiers Go?
Zhou Yang.
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2024 SRC.
🏆ACM Student Research Competition Gold Medal

AI Coders Are among Us: Rethinking Programming Language Grammar towards Efficient Code Generation.
Zhensu Sun, Xiaoning Du, Zhou Yang, Li Li, David Lo.
International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) 2024.
🏆ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award

Hotfixing Large Language Models for Code: How Far Can Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning Go?
Zhou Yang, David Lo.
arXiv preprint, 2024.

BAFFLE: Hiding Backdoors in Offline Reinforcement Learning Datasets.
Chen Gong, Zhou Yang, Yunpeng Bai, Junda He, Jieke Shi, Kecen Li, Arunesh Sinha, Bowen Xu, Xinwen Hou, David Lo, Tianhao Wang.
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P) 2024.

Assessing AI Detectors in Identifying AI-Generated Code: Implications for Education.
Wei Hung Pan, Ming Jie Chok, Jonathan Leong Shan Wong, Yung Xin Shin, Yeong Shian Poon, Zhou Yang, Chun Yong Chong, David Lo, Mei Kuan Lim.
Software Engineering Education and Training (SEET@ICSE) 2024.

Representation Learning for Stack Overflow Posts: How Far Are We?
Junda He, Xin Zhou, Bowen Xu, Ting Zhang, Kisub Kim, Zhou Yang, Ferdian Thung, Ivana Clairine Irsan, David Lo.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 33(3), 2024.

Towards Robust, Secure, and Privacy-Aware Large Language Models of Code.
Zhou Yang.
Singapore Management University, 2024.
🏆ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

Large Language Models for Software Engineering: A Systematic Literature Review.
Xinyi Hou, Yanjie Zhao, Yue Liu, Zhou Yang, Kailong Wang, Li Li, Xiapu Luo, David Lo, John Grundy, Haoyu Wang.
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 33(8), 2024.
🏆ACM TOSEM 2024 Most Cited Paper

Stealthy Backdoor Attack for Code Models.
Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Jie M. Zhang, Hong Jin Kang, Jieke Shi, Junda He, David Lo.
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 50(4), 2024.
🏆IEEE Computer Society Best Paper Award

2023

Data Augmentation Approaches for Source Code Models: A Survey.
Terry Yue Zhuo, Zhou Yang, Zhensu Sun, Yufei Wang, Li Li, Xiaoning Du, Zhenchang Xing, David Lo.
arXiv preprint, 2023.

CCBERT: Self-Supervised Code Change Representation Learning.
Xin Zhou, Bowen Xu, DongGyun Han, Zhou Yang, Junda He, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME) 2023.

Synthesizing Speech Test Cases with Text-to-Speech? An Empirical Study on the False Alarms in Automated Speech Recognition Testing.
Julia Kaiwen Lau, Kelvin Kai Wen Kong, Julian Hao Yong, Per Hoong Tan, Zhou Yang, Zi Qian Yong, Joshua Chern Wey Low, Chun Yong Chong, Mei Kuan Lim, David Lo.
International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) 2023.

ASDF: A Differential Testing Framework for Automatic Speech Recognition Systems.
Daniel Hao Xian Yuen, Andrew Yong Chen Pang, Zhou Yang, Chun Yong Chong, Mei Kuan Lim, David Lo.
IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST) 2023.

What Do Users Ask in Open-Source AI Repositories? An Empirical Study of GitHub Issues.
Zhou Yang, Chenyu Wang, Jieke Shi, Thong Hoang, Pavneet Singh Kochhar, Qinghua Lu, Zhenchang Xing, David Lo.
International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR) 2023.

NICHE: A Curated Dataset of Engineered Machine Learning Projects in Python.
Ratnadira Widyasari, Zhou Yang, Ferdian Thung, Sheng Qin Sim, Fiona Wee, Camellia Lok, Jack Phan, Haodi Qi, Constance Tan, Qijin Tay, David Lo.
International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR) 2023.

Towards Fair Machine Learning Software: Understanding and Addressing Model Bias Through Counterfactual Thinking.
Zhaoyang Wang, Zhou Yang, Mingqiu Qiu, Imam Haque, Lorne Brown, Yuheng He, Jiajun Wang, David Lo, Weiyi Zhang.
International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) 2023.

Exploring and Repairing Gender Fairness Violations in Word Embedding-based Sentiment Analysis Model through Adversarial Patches.
Lin Sze Khoo, Jia Qi Bay, Ming Lee Kimberly Yap, Mei Kuan Lim, Chun Yong Chong, Zhou Yang, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) 2023.

Adversarial Attacks on Code Models with Discriminative Graph Patterns.
Thanh-Dat Nguyen, Zhou Yang, Xuan Bach D. Le, Patanamon Thongtanunam, David Lo.
arXiv preprint, 2023.

Supporting Collateral Evolution in Software Ecosystems.
Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, David Lo.
Software Ecosystems: Tooling and Analytics, Chapter 7, 2023.

2022

BiasFinder: Metamorphic Test Generation to Uncover Bias for Sentiment Analysis Systems.
Muhammad Hilmi Asyrofi, Zhou Yang, Imam Nur Bani Yusuf, Hong Jin Kang, Ferdian Thung, David Lo.
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 48(12), 2022.

Natural Attack for Pre-trained Models of Code.
Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Junda He, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2022.

PTM4Tag: Sharpening Tag Recommendation of Stack Overflow Posts with Pre-trained Models.
Junda He, Bowen Xu, Zhou Yang, DongGyun Han, Chengran Yang, David Lo.
International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC) 2022.

Answer Summarization for Technical Queries: Benchmark and New Approach.
Chengran Yang, Bowen Xu, Ferdian Thung, Yucen Shi, Ting Zhang, Zhou Yang, Xin Zhou, Jieke Shi, Junda He, DongGyun Han, David Lo.
International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2022.

Compressing Pre-trained Models of Code into 3 MB.
Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Hong Jin Kang, David Lo.
International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2022.
🏆ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award Nomination

Curiosity-Driven and Victim-Aware Adversarial Policies.
Chen Gong, Zhou Yang, Yunpeng Bai, Jieke Shi, Arunesh Sinha, Bowen Xu, David Lo, Xinwen Hou, Guoliang Fan.
Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) 2022.
🏆Honorable Mention Award

Aspect-Based API Review Classification: How Far Can Pre-Trained Transformer Model Go?
Chengran Yang, Bowen Xu, Junaed Younus Khan, Gias Uddin, DongGyun Han, Zhou Yang, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) 2022.

Revisiting Neuron Coverage Metrics and Quality of Deep Neural Networks.
Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Muhammad Hilmi Asyrofi, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) 2022.

Can Identifier Splitting Improve Open-Vocabulary Language Model of Code?
Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Junda He, Bowen Xu, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER) 2022.

2021

BiasRV: Uncovering Biased Sentiment Predictions at Runtime.
Zhou Yang, Muhammad Hilmi Asyrofi, David Lo.
Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) 2021.

CrossASR++: A Modular Differential Testing Framework for Automatic Speech Recognition.
Muhammad Hilmi Asyrofi, Zhou Yang, David Lo.
Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) 2021.

BiasHeal: On-the-Fly Black-Box Healing of Bias in Sentiment Analysis Systems.
Zhou Yang, Harshit Jain, Jieke Shi, Muhammad Hilmi Asyrofi, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME) 2021.

Can Differential Testing Improve Automatic Speech Recognition Systems?
Muhammad Hilmi Asyrofi, Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Chu Wei Quan, David Lo.
International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME) 2021.

IncBL: Incremental Bug Localization.
Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Shaowei Wang, David Lo.
International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2021.