Chengyu Zhang 

Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich

Email (permanent): dale.chengyu.zhang AT gmail.com
Email (work): chengyu.zhang AT inf.ethz.ch

Chengyu Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher in the Advanced Software Technologies (AST) Lab at ETH Zurich, mentored by Prof. Zhendong Su. Chengyu Zhang received both Ph.D. and B.S. degrees from East China Normal University (ECNU) with honours (2012-2021), supervised by Prof. Geguang Pu. He was the co-founder of Shanghai Neoclub Information Technology Co., Ltd. (2015-2016) and a visiting Ph.D. student at ETH Zurich (2018-2019).

His research interests are in:

• Software Engineering
• Programming Languages
• Formal Methods

Project Yin-Yang for SMT Solver Testing: [Z3/CVC4 bugs: 1,667 (total) / 1,244 (fixed)]
[Reports: YinYang, OpFuzz, TypeFuzz]

  I am on the job market. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in my work or profile.

Selected Papers (all)

1. SMT2Test: From SMT Formulas to Effective Test Cases.
   Chengyu Zhang and Zhendong Su
   In Proceedings of SPLASH/OOPSLA 2024 .    
   
   
2. Finding Logic Bugs in Spatial Database Engines via Affine Equivalent Inputs.
   Wenjing Deng, Qiuyang Mang, Chengyu Zhang and Manuel Rigger
   In Proceedings of SIGMOD 2025 (acceptance rate: 12%, 30/254).    
   
   
3. Finding and Understanding Defects in Static Analyzers by Constructing Automated Oracles.
   Weigang He, Peng Di, Mengli Ming, Chengyu Zhang, Ting Su, Shijie Li and Yulei Sui
   In Proceedings of FSE 2024.    
   
   
4. An Electroencephalography Study on Cognitive Load in Visual and Textual Programming.
   Sverrir Thorgeirsson, Chengyu Zhang, Theo Weidmann, Karl-Heinz Weidmann, Zhendong Su
   In Proceedings of ICER 2024 (acceptance rate: 20%, 36/179).    
   
   
5. DivLog: Log Parsing with Prompt Enhanced In-Context Learning.
   Junjielong Xu, Ruichun Yang, Yintong Huo, Chengyu Zhang and Pinjia He.
   In Proceedings of ICSE 2024.    
   
   
6. Testing Graph Database Engines via Query Partitioning.
   Matteo Kamm, Manuel Rigger, Chengyu Zhang and Zhendong Su.
   In Proceedings of ISSTA 2023.     [ Artifact ]
   


7. FuzzBtor2: A Random Generator of Word-Level Model Checking Problems in Btor2 Format.
   Shengping Xiao, Chengyu Zhang, Jianwen Li, Geguang Pu.
   In Proceedings of TACAS 2023 (tool demonstration paper).     [ Tool ]
   


8. Generative Type-Aware Mutation for Testing SMT Solvers.
   Jiwon Park, Dominik Winterer, Chengyu Zhang and Zhendong Su.
   In Proceedings of SPLASH/OOPSLA 2021.     [ Tool ]
   


9. Feedback-Guided Circuit Structure Mutation for Testing Hardware Model Checkers.
   Chengyu Zhang, Minquan Sun, Jianwen Li, Ting Su and Geguang Pu
   In Proceedings of ICCAD 2021 (acceptance rate: 23.5%, 121/514).     [ Tool ]
   


10. On the Unusual Effectiveness of Type-aware Operator Mutations for Testing SMT Solvers.
    Dominik Winterer*, Chengyu Zhang* and Zhendong Su. (*: Equal contributions)
    In Proceedings of SPLASH/OOPSLA 2020.     [ Tool ]
    


11. Validating SMT Solvers via Semantic Fusion.
    Dominik Winterer*, Chengyu Zhang* and Zhendong Su. (*: Equal contributions)
    In Proceedings of PLDI 2020.     [ Slides / Video abstract / Tool ]
    
🏆   PLDI Distinguished Paper Award


12. Detecting Nondeterministic Payment Bugs in Ethereum Smart Contracts.
    Shuai Wang, Chengyu Zhang and Zhendong Su.
    In Proceedings of SPLASH/OOPSLA 2019.


13. Finding and Understanding Bugs in Software Model Checkers.
    Chengyu Zhang, Ting Su, Yichen Yan, Fuyuan Zhang, Geguang Pu and Zhendong Su.
    In Proceedings of ESEC/FSE 2019 (acceptance rate: 24%, 74/303).    [ Slides / Reported bugs ]


14. SmartUnit: Empirical Evaluations for Automated Unit Testing of Embedded Software in Industry.
    Chengyu Zhang, Yichen Yan, Hanru Zhou, Yinbo Yao, Ke Wu, Ting Su, Weikai Miao and Geguang Pu.
    In Proceedings of ICSE 2018, SEIP track (acceptance rate: 24%, 31/131).

Academic Services

• Organization:
USENIX OSDI'22 and ATC'22 (Artifact Evaluation Co-Chair)
• Program Committee (PC) Member:
ASE 2024, ISSTA/ECOOP 2024 Tool Demo, ECOOP 2023, ESEC/FSE 2023, FUZZING 2022
• Shadow Program Committee / Extended Review Committee Member:
Eurosys 2022, ECOOP 2022

• Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC) Member:
ECOOP 2022, USENIX Security 2022, OSDI 2021, ISSTA 2021, ECOOP 2021, PLDI 2021, OOPSLA 2020, ECOOP 2020

• Reviewer:
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE) 2022-2024
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) 2020-2024
Journal of Software: Evolution and Process 2021
Journal of Computer Science and Technology (JCST) 2020

Awards and Honours

• ESEC/FSE Distinguished Reviewer Award 2023
• CCF TCFM Distinguished PhD Thesis Nomination Award 2023
• Amazon Research Award (co-PI) 2022
• CCF-ANT Research Funding (co-PI) 2021
• Outstanding Graduate Award 2021
• Google Open Source Peer Bonus 2021
• PLDI Distinguished Paper Award 2020
• Outstanding Graduate Award 2016

Teaching Assistants

• Automated Software Testing, ETH Zurich (2022 Spring, 2023 Spring, 2024 Spring)
• Software Engineering Seminar, ETH Zurich (2022 Fall, 2023 Fall)
• Research Topics in Software Engineering, ETH Zurich (2022 Spring, 2023 Spring, 2024 Spring)
• Compiler Design, ETH Zurich (2019 Fall, 2022 Fall, 2023 Fall)
• Data Structures and Algorithms, ECNU (2018 Spring)

last modified: 2024.06.02