protrait
Yongqiang Tian

yqtian at ust.hk

yongqiang.tian at monash.edu

Room 2542, HKUST
Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong

About Me

I am a Research Assistant Professor at Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I am going to join Monash University as a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor in North American systems) in Mid-2025.

My research interest lies in software testing and debugging. There are two questions I am always interested in:

  1. What properties of software should be tested but have not been studied?
  2. How software can be effectively and efficiently tested and debugged w.r.t such properties?

I conduct systematic empirical studies and propose novel automated techniques to answer the above questions. I have been working on testing and debugging of the following domains of software:

  1. Deep Learning Compilers/Frameworks/Models: ICSE'25x2, TOSEM'23, EmSE'21, ISSTA'23, ...
  2. C/C++/Solidity Compilers: ISSTA'24, TOSEM'23, IJCAI'23, ASPLOS'23, OOPSLA'23, FSE'23, ...

More detailed publications can be found at Google Scholar and DBLP.

I obtained my dual Ph.D. degree from HKUST and UWaterloo, co-supervised by Prof. Shing-Chi Cheung and Prof. Chengnian Sun. Prior to that, I got my bachelor degree from City University of Hong Kong.

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 funded 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

  • Dec, 2024: I am going to join Monash University in 2025. I am looking forward to this new opportunity.
  • 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.

Services

  • Information Director, ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT), since 2024
  • Program Committee: ISSTA'25, PROMISE'25, ISSRE'24, ICST'24, AIware'24, Internetware'24
  • Journal Reviewer: TOSEM, TSE, TDSC, EmSE
  • Artifact Evaluation Committee: FSE'24, PLDI'24, PLDI'23, ISSTA'23, ESEC/FSE'23
  • Shadow PC: MSR'22
  • Additional Reviewers within the Technical Track-track: ICSE'24, FSE'24, ICSE'21, ISSTA'21, ESEC/FSE'22, etc.
  • Volunteer: Emerging Trends in Software Development Workshop 2023, ISSTA'19

Honors and Awards

  1. ACM SIGSOFT CAPS, ISSTA'24, 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.

Publications

See here, Google Scholar and DBLP.

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.

Experience

  • 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

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 .