陈翔XIANG CHEN
中文 EN

Xiang Chen · Nantong University

My research sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence and software engineering: around software vulnerabilities, software testing and code language models, I study how programs fail, how they are tested, and how they can be repaired automatically. I am an associate professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Nantong University, where I lead the smartSE research group.

Research Interests

Vulnerabilities
Detection, assessment, type prediction and automated repair
Code LLMs
LLM4SE, code generation and the security of code models (backdoors, poisoning, defences)
Program generation
Generating, repairing and automatically judging solutions for algorithmic problems
Defect prediction
Change representation, just-in-time defect and vulnerability prediction, commit messages
Software testing
Test case generation, regression testing, combinatorial and mutation testing
Repository mining
Stack Overflow mining, code summarisation, code and API search

Education & Experience

  • 2011 — now

    Associate Professor · Master's Supervisor Nantong University, School of AI & CS

    Department of Software Engineering; head of the smartSE research group

  • 2018 — 2019

    Visiting Scholar Cyber Security Lab, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

    Host: Prof. Yang Liu; funded by the Jiangsu Government Scholarship

  • 2009

    Visiting Scholar Software Evolution and Architecture Lab, University of Zurich, Switzerland

    Host: Prof. Harald C. Gall; funded by Nanjing University

  • 2011

    Ph.D. in Computer Science Nanjing University

    Advisors: Prof. Daoxu Chen and Prof. Qing Gu

  • 2008

    M.Sc. in Computer Science Nanjing University

  • 2002

    B.Sc. in Management Xi'an Jiaotong University, School of Management

Selected Publications

* corresponding author, underlined is me. See the full list, Google Scholar and DBLP.

  1. Semantic Consensus Decoding: Backdoor Defense for Verilog Code Generation

    Guang Yang, Xing Hu, Xiang Chen, Xin Xia

    TSEIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering · 2026 · CCF A

  2. Towards High-Quality Neural Program Repair: Learning from Positive Code Changes

    Zongwen Shen, Xvxing Ding, Wenkang Zhong, Xiang Chen, Jidong Ge, Chuanyi Li, Xuewei Zhang, Liguo Huang, Bin Luo

    TOSEMACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology · 2026 · CCF A

  3. FURINA: A Multi-Agent Framework for Automated Patch Correctness Assessment

    Yuning Li, Yuanjie Ji, Xiang Chen, Zongwen Shen, Jidong Ge, Bin Luo

    TOSEMACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology · 2026 · CCF A

  4. Large Language Model for Verilog Code Generation: Literature Review and the Road Ahead

    Guang Yang, Wei Zheng, Dong Liang, …, Xiang Chen, Xing Hu, Terry Yue Zhuo, David Lo

    CSURACM Computing Surveys · 2026 · CCF A

  5. QTC4SO: Automatic Question Title Completion for Stack Overflow

    Yanlin Zhou, Shaoyang Yang, Xiang Chen*, Zichen Zhang, Jiahua Pei

    ICPCICPC 2023 · 2023 · CCF B

    🏆 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award (2/22)

  6. Automated Query Reformulation for Efficient Search Based on Query Logs from Stack Overflow

    Kaibo Cao, Chuyang Chen*, Sebastian Baltes, Christoph Treude, Xiang Chen*

    ICSEICSE 2021 · 2021 · CCF A

    🏆 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award

Research Projects

  • 61202006

    National Natural Science Foundation of China

  • BK2012023

    Natural Science Research Project of Jiangsu Universities

  • JC2021124 et al.

    Nantong Applied Research Programme

    JC2021124, JC2019106, JC2018134, 12KJB520014

  • KFKT2024B21 et al.

    Open Fund, State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University

    KFKT2024B21, KFKT2019B14, KFKT2016B18, KFKT2012B29

  • 2020-MS-07

    Open Fund, State Key Laboratory of Information Security, IIE, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • kx202012 et al.

    Open Fund, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Trusted Software

    kx202012, kx201610

  • NJ2020022

    Open Fund, MIIT Key Laboratory of Safety-Critical Software, NUAA

Academic Service

Editorial & review

  • Information and Software Technology (CCF B), Editorial Board Member since 2022
  • Reviewer for IEEE TSE, ACM TOSEM, ACM CSUR, IEEE TDSC (CCF A)
  • Reviewer for EMSE, JSS, ASEJ, STVR, SQJ (CCF B)
  • Reviewer for Journal of Software and Chinese Journal of Computers

Program committees

  • FSE 2026, QRS 2026, Internetware 2025 / 2026, ICSS 2026
  • ICECCS 2025, COMPSAC 2025, SEKE 2021 — 2024
  • DSA 2021 / 2022, APSEC 2020, NASAC 2020

Community

  • Senior Member, CCF; Executive Committee, CCF TC on System Software (2019 —)
  • Executive Committee, CCF TC on Software Engineering (2020 —)
  • Member, ACM and IEEE
  • Outstanding Young Professional of Nantong

Prospective Students & Collaboration

I admit 3–4 master's students every year in intelligent science and technology, computer technology, and artificial intelligence. Topics span large language models, deep learning, natural language processing and software engineering. Motivated undergraduates are also welcome to join the group for algorithm contests, innovation competitions, or research on LLM-based software engineering.

I am looking for students who are self-driven, quick to learn, and comfortable with programming.

Email: xchencs@ntu.edu.cn. Student awards and destinations are listed on their own pages.

I am also happy to collaborate on software engineering (TSE, TOSEM, ICSE, FSE, ISSTA, ASE), security (TDSC, TIFS, CCS, S&P, USENIX Security, NDSS) and HCI (CHI, UIST) topics.

Contact