protrait
Yongqiang Tian

yqtian at ust.hk

yongqiang.tian at uwaterloo.ca

Room 2542, HKUST
Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong

About Me

I am a Research Assistant Professor (a transient but highly competitive position) at Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Piror to that, I obtained my Ph.D. degree from both HKUST and UWaterloo, co-supervised by Prof. Shing-Chi Cheung and Prof. Chengnian Sun. My research interest lies in software testing and debugging, especially the automated techniques for Deep Learning systems, Compilers and so on.

Google Scholar, DBLP

Openings

  • If you are interested in my research projects, please feel free to reach out to me via email. I would be happy to discuss opportunities for collaboration, which could include roles such as Research Intern or Research Assistant. I'm open to exploring different formats and arrangements to find the best fit. Please don't hesitate to contact me to learn more.

Updates

  • 2024: I am currently on the job market, actively seeking a tenure-track assistant professor position.
  • Oct, 2024: Two studies about delta debugging, Toward a Better Understandings of Probabilistic Delta Debugging and WDD: Weighted Delta Debugging are accepted by ICSE'25.
  • Aug, 2024: Our paper T-Rec: Fine-Grained Language-Agnostic Program Reduction Guided by Lexical Syntax is accepted by ACM TOSEM.
  • Jul, 2024: Our paper A Tale of Two DL Cities: When Library Tests Meet Compiler is accepted by ICSE'25.
  • Jul, 2024: Our paper Towards Understanding the Bugs in Solidity Compiler is accepted by ISSTA'24.
  • May, 2024: I am invited to be the PC member of ISSTA'25. Please submit your research work to ISSTA'25.
  • April, 2024: I am invited to be the PC member of ISSRE'24. Please submit your research work to ISSRE'24.
  • Mar, 2024: Our paper using Large Language Models to aid program reduction is accepted by ISSTA'24. A preprint version is available at here.

Education

  • The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Sep, 2017 - Jul, 2023    
    University of Waterloo, Canada Sep, 2020 - Jul, 2023    
    Dual Ph.D. Program in Computer Science.
    Supervised by Prof. Shing-Chi Cheung and Prof. Chengnian Sun
  • City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sep, 2013 - Jul, 2017   
    B.Eng. in Information Engineering (First Class Honors)
  • University College London, United Kingdom Sep, 2015 - Dec, 2015   
    Exchange Student in Department of Computer Science

Publications

* indicates that the first authors are mentored by me.

  1. [ICSE'25] Toward a Better Understandings of Probabilistic Delta Debugging.
    Mengxiao Zhang, Zhenyang Xu, Yongqiang Tian*, Xinru Cheng, Chengnian Sun
    in 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'25) , 2025.
  2. [ICSE'25] WDD: Weighted Delta Debugging.
    Xintong Zhou, Zhenyang Xu, Mengxiao Zhang, Yongqiang Tian, Chengnian Sun
    in 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'25) , 2025.
  3. [TOSEM] T-Rec: Fine-Grained Language-Agnostic Program Reduction Guided by Lexical Syntax.
    Zhenyang Xu, Yongqiang Tian*, Mengxiao Zhang, Jiarui Zhang, Puzhuo Liu, Yu Jiang, Chengnian Sun
    in ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2024.
  4. [ICSE'25] A Tale of Two DL Cities: When Library Tests Meet Compiler.
    Qingchao Shen, Yongqiang Tian, Haoyang Ma, Junjie Chen, Lili Huang, Ruifeng Fu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Zan Wang
    in 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'25) , 2025.
  5. [ISSTA'24] Towards Understanding the Bugs in Solidity Compiler.
    Haoyang Ma, Wuqi Zhang, Qingchao Shen, Yongqiang Tian*, Junjie Chen, Shing-Chi Cheung
    in 33rd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) , 2024.
  6. [ISSTA'24] LPR: Large Language Models-Aided Program Reduction.
    Mengxiao Zhang, Yongqiang Tian*, Zhenyang Xu, Yiwen Dong, Shin Hwei Tan, Chengnian Sun
    in 33rd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) , 2024.
    A preprint version is available here.
  7. [TOSEM] On the Caching Schemes to Speed Up Program Reduction.
    Yongqiang Tian, Xueyan Zhang, Yiwen Dong, Zhenyang Xu, Mengxiao Zhang, Yu Jiang, Shing-Chi Cheung, Chengnian Sun
    published in ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2023.
  8. [TOSEM] Finding Deviated Behaviors of the Compressed DNN Models for Image Classifications.
    Yongqiang Tian, Wuqi Zhang, Ming Wen, Shing-Chi Cheung, Chengnian Sun, Shiqing Ma, Yu Jiang
    published in ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2023.
  9. [IJCAI'23] Revisiting the Evaluation of Deep Learning-Based Compiler Testing.
    Yongqiang Tian, Zhenyang Xu, Yiwen Dong, Chengnian Sun, Shing-Chi Cheung
    in The 32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2023.
  10. [ESEC/FSE'23] PPR: Pairwise Program Reduction.
    Mengxiao Zhang, Zhenyang Xu, Yongqiang Tian*, Yu Jiang, Chengnian Sun
    in ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE), 2023.
  11. [ESEC/FSE'23 Tool] Ad Hoc Syntax-Guided Program Reduction.
    Jia Le Tian, Mengxiao Zhang, Zhenyang Xu, Yongqiang Tian, Yiwen Dong, Chengnian Sun.
    in ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE Tool), 2023.
  12. [ISSTA'23] CoopHance: Cooperative Enhancement for Robustness of Deep Learning Systems.
    Quan Zhang, Yongqiang Tian*, Yifeng Ding, Shanshan Li, Chengnian Sun, Yu Jiang, Jiaguang Sun
    in ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2023.
  13. [ISSTA'23] Fuzzing Deep Learning Compilers with HirGen.
    Haoyang Ma, Qingchao Shen, Yongqiang Tian, Junjie Chen, Shing-Chi Cheung
    in ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2023.
  14. [TOSEM'23] COMET: Coverage-guided Model Generation For Deep Learning Library Testing.
    Meiziniu Li, Jialun Cao, Yongqiang Tian, Tsz On Li, Ming Wen, Shing-Chi Cheung
    published in ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2023.
  15. [OOPSLA'23] Pushing the Limit of 1-Minimality of Language-Agnostic Program Reduction.
    Zhenyang Xu, Yongqiang Tian, Mengxiao Zhang, Gaosen Zhao, Yu Jiang, Chengnian Sun
    in the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA), 2023.
  16. [ASPLOS'23] Compilation Consistency Modulo Debug Information.
    Theodore Luo Wang, Yongqiang Tian, Yiwen Dong, Zhenyang Xu, Chengnian Sun
    in the 28th Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS), 2023.
  17. [SCIS] Towards Actionable Testing of Deep Learning Models.
    Yingfei Xiong, Yongqiang Tian*, Yepang Liu, Shing-Chi Cheung
    published in Science China Information Sciences, 2023.
  18. [TOSEM] Bash in the Wild: Language Usage, Code Smells, and Bugs.
    Yiwen Dong, Zheyang Li, Yongqiang Tian, Chengnian Sun, Michael Godfrey, Meiyappan Nagappan
    published in ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Volume 32, Issue 1, Article No. 8, pp 1–22.
  19. [ICSE'22] SnR: Constraint-Based Type Inference for Incomplete Java Code Snippets.
    Yiwen Dong, Tianxiao Gu, Yongqiang Tian, Chengnian Sun
    in the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2022.
  20. [ICSE'22] DeepFD: Automated Fault Diagnosis and Localization for Deep Learning Programs.
    Jialun Cao, Meiziniu LI, Xiao Chen, Ming Wen, Yongqiang Tian, Bo Wu, Shing-Chi Cheung
    in the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2022.
  21. [EMSE'21, ICSE'22 Journal-first] To What Extent Do DNN-based Image Classification Models Make Unreliable Inferences?
    Yongqiang Tian, Shiqing Ma, Ming Wen, Yepang Liu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Xiangyu Zhang
    in Empirical Software Engineering, 26, Article number: 84, 2021. [Paper] [Website]
    Note: The name of its arXiv version is Testing Deep Learning Models for Image Analysis Using Object-Relevant Metamorphic Relations.
  22. [ESEC/FSE'21] A Comprehensive Study of Deep Learning Compiler Bugs.
    Qingchao Shen, Haoyang Ma, Junjie Chen, Yongqiang Tian, Shing-Chi Cheung, Xiang Chen
    in The ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE'21), 2021. (Acceptance ratio 24.5% = 97/396)
  23. [ISSTA'21] AdvDoor: Adversarial Backdoor Attack of Deep Learning System.
    Quan Zhang, Yifeng Ding, Yongqiang Tian, Jianmin Guo, Min Yuan, Yu Jiang
    in ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2021 (Acceptance ratio 21.9% = 51/233)
  24. [ICSE'20 Demo] EvalDNN: A Toolbox for Evaluating Deep Neural Network Models.
    Yongqiang Tian, Zhihua Zeng, Ming Wen, Yepang Liu, Tzu-yang Kuo, Shing-Chi Cheung
    in The 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2020 Demos), 2020
  25. [TSE] Historical Spectrum based Fault Localization.
    Ming Wen, Junjie Chen, Yongqiang Tian, Rongxin Wu, Dan Hao, Shi Han, Shing-Chi Cheung
    in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2021
  26. [ESEC/FSE’19] Exploring and Exploiting the Correlations between Bug-Inducing and Bug-Fixing Commits.
    Ming Wen, Rongxin Wu, Yepang Liu, Yongqiang Tian, Xuan Xie, Shing-Chi Cheung, Zhendong Su
    in The ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE), 2019.

Teaching

  1. HKUST COMP1021 Introduction to Computer Science, Fall 2024. Instructor. Extra Course Materials.
  2. UWaterloo SE465 Software Testing and Quality Assurance, Winter 2023. Teaching Assistant.
  3. UWaterloo SE463 Software Requirements Specification & Analysis, Spring 2022. Teaching Assistant.
  4. UWaterloo SE490 Design Project 1, Spring 2022. Teaching Assistant.
  5. UWaterloo SE465 Software Testing and Quality Assurance, Winter 2022. Teaching Assistant.
  6. HKUST COMP5111 Fundamentals of Software Analysis, Spring 2020. Teaching Assistant.
  7. HKUST COMP5111 Fundamentals of Software Analysis, Spring 2019. Teaching Assistant.
  8. HKUST COMP3021 Java Programming, Fall 2018. Teaching Assistant.
  9. CityU EE3201 Signals and Systems, Fall 2016. Student Tutor

Mentored Students

It is my greatest honor to work with the following talent students.

  • Mr. Weiqi Lu, Ph.D. student at HKUST, since 2023
  • Miss Xiaohan Zhong, Ph.D. student at HKUST, since 2023
  • Mr. Yiwen Dong, Ph.D. student at UWaterloo, since 2021
  • Mr. Mengxiao Zhang, Ph.D. student at UWaterloo, since 2021
  • Mr. Zhenyang Xu, Ph.D. student at UWaterloo, since 2020
  • Mr. Haoyang Ma, Ph.D. student at HKUST, since 2020
  • Mr. Tzu-yang Kuo, Undergraduate at HKUST, 2018-2020. Now at Google.
  • Mr. Zhihua Zeng, Visiting Intern from Zhejiang University, Summer 2019.

Academic Service

  1. Program Committee: ISSTA'25, ISSRE'24, ICST'24, AIware'24, Internetware'24
  2. Journal Reviewer: TOSEM, TSE, TDSC, EmSE
  3. Artifact Evaluation Committee: FSE'24, PLDI'24, PLDI'23, ISSTA'23, ESEC/FSE'23
  4. Shadow PC: MSR'22
  5. Additional Reviewers within the Technical Track-track: ICSE'24, FSE'24, ICSE'21, ISSTA'21, ESEC/FSE'22, etc.
  6. Volunteer: Emerging Trends in Software Development Workshop 2023, ISSTA'19

Honors and Awards

  1. ACM SIGSOFT CAPS, ICSE'24, 2024.
  2. ASPLOS'23 Student Travel Grant, 2023.
  3. GO-Bell Scholarship, University of Waterloo, 2020-2022.
  4. Microsoft Asia Cloud Research Software Fellow (CRSF) Awards, 2019.
  5. Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, Annually in 2017-2020.
  6. Bronze Award and Innovative Idea Award, CityU EE Information Product Design Competition, May 2016.
  7. Dean’s List, College of Science and Engineering, CityU, 7 times in 2013-2017.
  8. Mainland Student Scholarship, CityU, 2013-2017.
  9. Outstanding Student Prize, CityU EE, June 2014.
  10. Champion in Junior Group, CityU CS Programming, 2014.

Miscellaneous

Training and Voluntary Experience

  1. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Hong Kong, 2024
  2. CPR & AED Training, Fire Services Department, Hong Kong, 2024
  3. Fire Safety Ambassador, Fire Services Department, Hong Kong, 2023
  4. Volunteer of Tree Transplantation, HKUST, 2023
  5. Volunteer of City-Youth Empowerment Project, CityU of HK, Fall 2016

Projects

Besides research prototypes, I am actively maintaining the following projects:

  1. Guide for using LaTex in academic writing
  2. A collection of awesome and useful resources for research

Last updated on .