Research Interests: testing and analyzing software with novel approaches and AI based ones.
- AI and AI based Systems
- Autonomous Driving (ISSTA 2026, ISSTA 2023).
- AI and ML (ICSE 2026b, AAAI 2025, ICML 2024, ICSE 2016b, ESEC/FSE 2018, IEEE TSE 2019).
- Concurrency
- General algorithms (ACM CSUR 2026, ICML 2026, ICSE 2025, ACM TOSEM 2023, ESEC/FSE 2021a, ICSE 2023).Deadlocks (ICSE 2020,ICSE 2012, IEEE TSE 2014, ASE 2016, TSE 2016, ICSE 2014, IEEE TPDS 2015, PPoPP 2013, ICSE 2012).
- Security
- Concurrency vulnerabilities: ICSE 2024, ESEC/FSE 2019, ESEC/FSE 2021b, ISSTA 2021a.
- Software vulnerabilities: ICSE 2026a, SANER 2020, USENIX 2022, IEEE TRel 2022, SOSP 2023, CCS 2024.
Service (more)
- Associate Editor, Journal of Systems and Software (JSS)
- PC Member: ICSE 2027, FSE 2027, AAAI 2026, ICSE 2026, ASE 2026 … see more at my Researchr
- Reviewers: NIPS/ICLR/CVPR/KDD 2026.
Recent Publications (more)
- Shihao Zhu, Yuqi Guo, Jinqiu Wang, Yan Cai, Jian Zhang, Shuyang Liu, Jens Palsberg. On Models for Sound Dynamic Data Race Detection: A Survey and An Outlook. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 2026, accepted.
- Yuqi Guo, Siwei Wei, Yan Cai. DRPBench: Evaluating LLMs in Concurrent Code Comprehension via Fine-grained Data Race Prediction. ICML’26, Spotlight.
- Xudong Zhang, Shihao Zhu, Yan Cai. Fixed-Point Guided ADS Scenario Generation via Multi-Modal LLM Reasoning and Software Testing. ISSTA’26.
- Luxia Lin, Xudong Zhang, Shihao Zhu, Yan Cai. Metamorphic Fuzzing for Multi-Agent Path Finding Algorithms. ICSE ’26.
- Siwei Wei, Yan Cai. Generator Solving for Symbolic Execution. ICSE ’26.