Chengnian Sun

Chengnian Sun

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

University of Waterloo

Assistant Professor (Aug 2019 ~ )
Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo, Canada

Ph.D. (Aug 2008 ~ Nov 2013)
School of Computing
National University of Singapore


Research Interests

  • Software Engineering
  • Programming Languages

with a focus on software reliability and programming productivity, e.g.,

  • Compiler Testing: EMI
  • Android Testing: APE
  • Program Reduction: Perses

Misc

Publications

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Puzhuo Liu, Yaowen Zheng, Chengnian Sun, Chuan Qin, Dongliang Fang, Mingdong Liu, Limin Sun (2024). FITS: Inferring Intermediate Taint Sources for Effective Vulnerability Analysis of IoT Device Firmware. 29th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS).

Mengxiao Zhang, Zhenyang Xu, Yongqiang Tian, Yu Jiang, Chengnian Sun (2023). PPR: Pairwise Program Reduction. ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE).

Zhenyang Xu, Yongqiang Tian, Mengxiao Zhang, Gaosen Zhao, Yu Jiang, Chengnian Sun (2023). Pushing the Limit of 1-Minimality of Language-Agnostic Program Reduction. ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA).

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Yongqiang Tian, Zhenyang Xu, Yiwen Dong, Chengnian Sun, Shing-Chi Cheung (2023). Revisiting the Evaluation of Deep Learning-Based Compiler Testing. The 32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI).

Quan Zhang, Yongqiang Tian, Yifeng Ding, Shanshan Liu, Chengnian Sun, Yu Jiang (2023). CoopHance: Cooperative Enhancement for Robustness of Deep Learning System. ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA).

Yongqiang Tian, Wuqi Zhang, Ming Wen, Shing-Chi Cheung, Chengnian Sun, Shiqing Ma, Yu Jiang (2023). Finding Deviated Behaviors of Compressed DNN Models for Image Classifications. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM).

Theodore Luo Wang, Yongqiang Tian, Yiwen Dong, Zhenyang Xu, Chengnian Sun (2023). Compilation Consistency Modulo Debug Information. 28th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS).

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Teaching

2023

  • SE 465, Software Testing and Quality Assurance (Winter)

2022

  • CS 846, Advanced Topics in Software Engineering (Fall)

  • SE 465, Software Testing and Quality Assurance (Winter)

  • CS 846, Advanced Topics in Software Engineering (Winter)

2021

  • SE 465, Software Testing and Quality Assurance (Winter)
  • CS 846: Advanced Topics in Software Engineering (Winter)

2020

  • SE 465: Software Testing and Quality Assurance (Winter)
  • CS 846: Advanced Topics in Software Engineering (Winter)

Grants

  • PI, Cisco Research Gift, 2022
  • PI, Ontario Research Fund - Research Infrastructure (ORF-RI) Grant, 2021
  • PI, CFI John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), 2021
  • PI, WHJIL Project, 2021-2023
  • CO-PI, WHJIL Project, 2020-2022
  • PI, Canada NSERC Discovery, 2019-2024
  • CO-PI, US NSF Grant, SHF:Small:Compiler Validation via Equivalence Modulo Inputs, 2015-2017

Awards

  • Most Influential Paper Award at SANER, 2022

  • ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at ASE, 2012

  • NUS Research Scholarship, Singapore, 2008 - 2012

  • ACM SIGSOFT CAPS Fund to Attend ICSE'10 (Merit-Based), 2010

  • NUS Research Achievement Award, Singapore, 2010

  • 2006 IBM Excellent Student Scholarship, China, 2006

  • First Prize in IBM Cup Campus Innovation and Design Contest, Greater China, 2005

Students

For Prospectives

  • Funded Ph.D. openings for self-motivated, technically strong students (master degrees not required).

  • URA, USRA, URF, CS499 for UWaterloo undergraduates.

  • Funded master openings for students who have worked with me.

  • Very few funded master openings for exceptional candidates with strong commitments to convert to Ph.D.

Ph.D. Students

MMath Students

  • Gaosen Zhao (Sep 2021 ~ )

  • Boren Zang (Sep 2021 ~ )

  • Aryan Haddadi (Sep 2022 ~ )

  • Raymond Chang (Sep 2022 ~ )

MMath Alumni

  • Zheyang (Charles) Li (Sep 2019 ~ May 2021)

    • Thesis: An Empirical Study on Bash Language Usage in Github

    • TOSEM 2022

  • Yaxin Cheng (Sep 2020 ~ Aug 2022)

    • Thesis: Ape+: A Faster Ape with Static Model Guided Exploration

  • Xueyan Zhang (Jan 2021 ~ Nov 2022)

    • Thesis: On the Caching Scheme to Speed Up Program Reduction

Undergraduate Students

  • Jiale (Tom) Tian

    • 2021 S, Part-time URA
    • 2021 F, Part-time URA
    • 2022 W, CS 499R
    • 2022 S, CS 499T
    • 2022 F, Part-time URA
    • 2023 W, Part-time URA

  • Jiarui Zhang

    • 2022 S, Part-time URA
    • 2022 F, CS 499R

  • Theodore Wang

    • 2020 F, Part-time URA
    • 2021 W, Part-time URA
    • 2021 S, Part-time URA
    • 2021 F, Part-time URA
    • 2022 W, CS 499R
    • 2022 S, CS 499T

  • Xinru Cheng

    • 2021 S, Part-time URA
    • 2021 F, Part-time URA
    • 2022 W, CS 499R
    • 2022 S, CS 499T

  • Jiabao Zheng

    • 2021 F, Part-time URA
    • 2022 W, Part-time URA
    • 2022 S, Part-time URA

  • Zidan (Ivan) Shan

    • 2022 S, Part-time URA

  • Gaosen Zhao

    • 2020 S, Part-time URA
    • 2020 F, Part-time URA
    • 2021 W, Part-time URA

  • Clara Xi

    • 2020 F, Full-time CO-OP URA

  • Zhiping Cai

    • 2020 F, Part-time URA

  • Ruitao Lai

    • 2020 F, Part-time URA

Activities

Program Committee

  • 2024: ESEC/FSE

  • 2022: ESEC/FSE

  • 2021: ISSTA; ESEC/FSE Visions and Reflections, ICSME

  • 2020: ESEC/FSE, ICSE SEIP, ESEC/FSE Visions and Reflections, ASE, ICSME, MibileSoft

  • 2019: ISSTA, ASE

  • 2018: ICSME

Journal Reviewer

  • 2017: EMSE

  • 2016: EMSE

  • 2015: TACO, EMSE

  • 2014: TKDE, STVR

  • 2013: IET Software, KAIS

Artifact Evaluation Committee

  • 2017: PLDI, ISSTA

  • 2016: PLDI

Reviewer

  • 2017: ISSTA

  • 2016: SETTE

  • 2015: FSE, CAV

  • 2014: ISSTA, HVC

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Assistant Professor
Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
Aug 2019 – Present Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
 
 
 
 
 
Software Engineer
Google Search, Google Inc.
Feb 2017 – Aug 2019 Mountain View, California, USA
 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis
Dec 2013 – Feb 2017 Davis, California, USA
 
 
 
 
 
Research Intern
Software Analytics Group, Microsoft Research Asia
Apr 2012 – Jul 2012 Beijing, China
 
 
 
 
 
Research Assistant
Software Engineering Lab, National University of Singapore
Apr 2008 – Aug 2008 Singapore
 
 
 
 
 
Research Intern
IBM China Research Lab
Jan 2007 – Apr 2008 Beijing, China
 
 
 
 
 
Product Validation Engineer
Intel Asia-Pacific R&D Ltd
Jun 2006 – Jan 2007 Shanghai, China

Contact