I am Congying (Alex) XU, a Postdoctoral Researcher at HKUST, working with Prof. Shuai Wang. I obtained my PhD from HKUST, supervised by Prof. Shing-Chi CHEUNG (IEEE Fellow, Chair Professor). I was a visiting scholar at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University), collaborating with Prof. Christian Kästner.
I am exploring research topics about AI Coding and Trustworthy AI Systems. I have published papers in leading software engineering venues, including ICSE, FSE, ASE, TOSEM, TSE, EMSE, etc. I serve the research community as a Program Committee member of ICSE 2027, and have contributed as a (shadow) reviewer or artifact evaluation committee member for venues such as FSE, ASE, ISSTA, ISSRE, TOSEM, and ASEJ. My work has received recognition including the IEEE TCSE Distinguished Paper Award (2020), and the CCF ChinaSoft Prototype Competition Second Prize (2020).
🔥 News
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✨ I am officially on the job market (2026), seeking positions of Research Scientist (Industry) or Research Faculty (Academia).
Here is my [CV]. If you know of a postion that might be a match, or would like to hear more about my work, please feel free to reach out (📧: congying.xu@connect.ust.hk)! -
2026.03: 🎉 One paper “MR-Coupler: Automated Metamorphic Test Generation via Functional Coupling Analysis” has been accepted by FSE 2026!
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2026.02: 🎉 I successfully defended my PhD thesis.
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2026.02: I’m honored to serve as a Program Committee member for ICSE 2027. Looking forward to great submissions. Please consider submitting your work!
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2026.01: 🎉 Two papers “Can Emulating Semantic Translation Help LLMs with CodeTranslation? A Study Based on Pseudocode” [Paper], and “Less Is More: Failing Test Generation with Large Language Models” have been accepted by TOSEM 2026!
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2025.12: 🎉 One paper “Towards Verifiably Safe Tool Use for LLM Agents” has been accepted by ICSE-NIER 2026!
📖 Working/Education Experience
- 2026.03 - now, Postdoctoral Researcher, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- 2022.09 - 2026.03, PhD Degree, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
- 2025.01 - 2025.06, Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Mellon University.
- 2019.09 - 2022.06, Master Degree, Fudan University.
- 2015.09 - 2019.06, Bachelor Degree, Yangzhou University.
📝 Projects and Publications
LLM Agent Safety and Reliability
ICSE-NIER 2026Towards Verifiably Safe Tool Use for LLM Agents [To appear]
Aarya Doshi, Yining Hong, Congying Xu, Eunsuk Kang, Alexandros Kapravelos, Christian Kästner
LLM-Empowered Software Testing
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FSE 2026MR-Coupler: Automated Metamorphic Test Generation via Functional Coupling Analysis [To appear]
Congying Xu, Songqiang Chen, Hengcheng Zhu, Jiarong Wu, Valerio Terragni, Shing-Chi Cheung -
ASE 2024MR-Adopt: Automatic Deduction of Input Transformation Function for Metamorphic Testing [Paper]
Congying Xu, Songqiang Chen, Jiarong Wu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Valerio Terragni, Hengcheng Zhu, Jialun Cao -
TOSEM 2024MR-Scout: Automated Synthesis of Metamorphic Relations from Existing Test Cases [Paper]
Congying Xu, Valerio Terragni, Hengcheng Zhu, Jiarong Wu, Shing-Chi Cheung -
TOSEM 2026Less Is More: Failing Test Generation with Large Language Models [To Appear]
Tsz-On Li, Xiaochuan Yan, Wenxi Zong, Yibo Wang, Haoye Tian, Congying Xu, Ying Wang, Shing-Chi Cheung, and Jeff Kramer
LLM-Empowered Code Translation and Generation
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TOSEM 2026On Effective Semantic Translation for Code: A Study Based on Pseudocode [Paper]
Songqiang Chen, Congying Xu, Jingyi Chen, Jialun Cao, Jiarong Wu, Shing-Chi Cheung -
TSE 2025Question Selection for Multi-Modal Code Search Synthesis using Probabilistic Version Spaces [Paper]
Jiarong Wu, Yanyan Jiang, Lili Wei, Congying Xu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Chang Xu
Software Supply Chain Security
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FSE 2022Tracking Patches for Open Source Software Vulnerabilities [Paper]
Congying Xu, Bihuan Chen, Chenhao Lu, Kaifeng Huang, Xin Peng, Yang Liu -
EMSE 2022Characterizing usages, updates and risks of third-party libraries in Java projects [Paper]
Kaifeng Huang, Bihuan Chen, Congying Xu, Ying Wang, Bowen Shi, Xin Peng, Yijian Wu, Yang Liu -
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ICSME 2020An Empirical Study of Usages, Updates and Risks of Third-Party Libraries in Java Projects. [Paper]
Ying Wang, Bihuan Chen, Kaifeng Huang, Bowen Shi, Congying Xu, Xin Peng, Yijian Wu, Yang Liu -
FSE 2020Interactive, Effort-aware Library Version Harmonization [Paper]
Kaifeng Huang, Bihuan Chen, Bowen Shi, Ying Wang, Congying Xu, Xin Peng
Recommendation System
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ICSE 2019MULAPI: A Tool for API Method and Usage Location Recommendation [Paper]
Congying Xu, Bosen Min, Xiaobing Sun, Jiajun Hu, Bin Li, Yucong Duan -
JSS 2018MULAPI: Improving API method recommendation with API usage location [Paper]
Congying Xu, Xiaobing Sun, Bin Li, Xintong Lu, Hongjing Guo,
💬 Invited Talks
- 2025.12, Foundations of Software Testing at APSEC 2025, Macao SAR.
- 2024.07, Advancements in Metamorphic Testing: Automated Deduction and Synthesis of Metamorphic Relations at Fudan University (Shanghai) and Yangzhou University (Yangzhou).
🤝 Service
Peer Review (Journals)
- Reviewer: ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), since 2025
- Reviewer: Automated Software Engineering (ASEJ), since 2025
Peer Review (Conferences)
- PC memeber: ICSE 2027
- Shadow PC: FSE 2025, ASE 2025, ISSTA 2025
Artifact Evaluation
- Reviewer: ICSE 2026, ISSRE 2024, ISSRE 2023
Conference Organization
- Volunteer: FSE 2025, ASE 2021
🎖 Honors and Awards
- 2025, Overseas Research Award, HKUST.
- 2022.09 - 2026.03, Postgraduate Studentship (PGS), HKUST.
- 2019, National Scholarship, Ministry of Education of China.
- 2019, Outstanding Graduates of Yangzhou University.
- 2018, First Prize·Blue Bridge Cup National Programming Competition, Jiangsu (Java).
- 2014, First Prize·Chemistry Olympiad Contest, Jiangsu Province.
📖 Teaching Experience
- COMP4633 Competitive Programming in Cybersecurity (Fall 2025–26)
- COMP3021 Java Programming (Fall 2024–25)
- COMP1021 Introduction to Computer Science (Python Programming) (Fall 2023-24)
Schedule a Meeting
I’d be happy to connect! Please book a time via my calendar 👈.