About Me

News

I'm always looking for self-motivated PhD students. If you are interested in pursuing PhD with me, please first read this advertisement.

I'm chairing PROMISE2026. Please consider submitting your contributions to the conference!

I'm hosting a special issue for PROMISE 2025 for Empirical Software Engineering (EmSE) with deadline as Feb 26, 2026. The special issue is an open call! Please consider submitting your contributions to the special issue.

Research and Education

I am an Assistant Professor at the ECE department of McGill University. My major research interests lie in software analysis, testing, and mining code repositories with a focus on Android applications, smart contracts and IoT software. I was a Post-doctoral Fellow in CASTLE group at HKUST, and a recipient of the Postdoctoral Fellowship Award by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council. I completed my doctoral degree under the supervision of Prof. S.C. Cheung at HKUST in Spring 2020. My doctoral thesis focuses on taming compatibility issues raised by Android fragmentation.

I visited Opera at UCSD from Feb 2019 to Aug 2019. It was a fruitful experience there with Prof. Yuanyuan Zhou and the group members.

I obtained my B.Sc. degree in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Nanjing University (2011-2015).

As a Female in CS

As a female studying computer science, I always hope that there will be more and more female involved in computer science or other STEM fields.

I shared my thoughts and experiences in an interview by the School of Engineering at HKUST and an interview by STEM by Her.

You can also find interesting facts/stories about women in STEM fields at STEM by Her.

Hobbies

I am a fan of Japanese Mangas and video games. I also do drawings for fun.
My favourite manga include One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, Evangelion, etc. My recent favourite games are Zelda Breath of the Wind (Yes, I just started to play it), Pokemon Violet (I got full pokedex), Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Detroid: Become Human, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH). The dream address of my ACNH island is: DA-4276-1213-2798. The island is still under construction but do come and have a visit if you are also playing ACNH. :)

Publications

  1. [EmSE 2025] Kevin Li, Lin Ling, Jinqiu Yang, Lili Wei
    Automatically Detecting Checked-In Secrets in Android Apps: How Far Are We? In Empirical Software Engineering, Accepted.
    [Paper]
  2. [ASE 2025] Yifei Chen, Sarra Habchi, Lili Wei
    MIMIC: Integrating Diverse Personality Traits for Better Game Testing Using Large Language Model In the 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering.
    [Paper][Project]
  3. [ASE 2025] Hengcheng Zhu, Songqiang Chen, Valerio Terragni, Lili Wei , Jiarong Wu, Yepang Liu, and Shing-Chi Cheung
    LSPFuzz: Hunting Bugs in Language Servers. In the 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering.
    [Paper][Project]
  4. [AIware 2025] Rufeng Chen, Shuaishuai Jiang, Jiyun Shen, AJung Moon, Lili Wei
    Examining the Usage of Generative AI Models in Student Learning Activities for Software Programming. In ACM International Conference on AI-powered Software.
    [Paper][Project]
  5. [EmSE 2025] Lu Liu, Lili Wei, Wuqi Zhang, Shuqing Li, Yifan Zhou, Yepang Liu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Michael R. Lyu
    On State Reverting in Solidity Smart Contracts: Developer Practices, Fault Categorization, and Tool Evaluation In Empirical Software Engineering, Accepted.
  6. [TSE 2025] Jiarong Wu, Yanyan Jiang, Lili Wei, Congying Xu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Chang Xu
    Question Selection for Multi-Modal Code Search Synthesis using Probabilistic Version Space In IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, to appear.
  7. [TSE 2025] Sogol Masoumzadeh, Nuno Saavedra, Rungroj Maipradit, Lili Wei, João F. Ferreira, Dániel Varró, Shane McIntosh.
    Do Experts Agree About Smelly Infrastructure? In IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, to appear.
  8. [FSE 2025] Hengcheng Zhu, Valerio Terragni, Lili Wei, Shing-Chi Cheung, Jiarong Wu, and Yepang Liu.
    Understanding and Characterizing Mock Assertions in Unit Tests. In the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering, June 2025, Trondheim, Norway, to appear.
  9. [ICSE 2025] Faridah Akinotcho, Lili Wei, Julia Rubin.
    Mobile Application Coverage: The 30% Curse and Ways Forward In The 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering, May 2025, Ottawa, Canada, to appear.
    [Paper]
  10. [ICPC 2025] Zixu Zhou, Rufeng Chen, Junfeng Chen, Yepang Liu, and Lili Wei.
    Characterizing Bugs in Login Processes of Android Applications: An Empirical Study. In The 33rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension, April 2025, Ottawa, Canada, to appear.
    [Paper]
  11. [EmSE 2025] Lili Wei, Heqing Huang, Shing-Chi Cheung, Kevin Li.
    How Far are App Secrets from Being Stolen? A Case Study on Android. In Empirical Software Engineering, accepted.
    [Paper]
  12. [ICSME 2024] Junfeng Chen, Kevin Li, Yifei Chen, Lili Wei, and Yepang Liu.
    Demistifying Device-specific Compatibility Issues in Android Apps. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, pp 525-537.
    [Paper][Project]
  13. [S&P 2024] Wuqi Zhang, Zhuo Zhang, Qingkai Shi, Lu Liu, Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, Xiangyu Zhang, Shing-Chi Cheung.
    Nyx: Detecting Exploitable Front-Running Vulnerabilities in Smart Contracts. In The 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp 146–164.
    [Paper][Project]
  14. [TOSEM 2023] Hengcheng Zhu, Lili Wei, Valerio Terragni, Yepang Liu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Jiarong Wu, Qin Sheng, Bing Zhang, and Lihong Song.
    "StubCoder: Automated Generation and Repair of Stub Code for Mock Objects".In ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Volume 33, Issue 1, Article No.: 16, pp 1–31.
    [Paper][Project]
  15. [TOSEM 2023] Jiarong Wu, Lili Wei, Yanyan Jiang, Shing-Chi Cheung, Luyao Ren, Chang Xu.
    "Programming by Example Made Easy".In ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Volume 33, Issue 1, Article No.: 4, pp 1–36.
    [Paper][Project]
  16. [ISSTA 2023] Jiajun Hu, Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, Shing-Chi Cheung.
    "ωTest: WebView-Oriented Testing for Android Applications".In The ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), Seattle, USA, July 2023, pp 992-1004.
    [Paper][Project]
  17. [TSE 2023, ASE 2023 journal-first] Wuqi Zhang, Lili Wei, Shing-Chi Cheung, Yepang Liu, Shuqing Li, Lu Liu and Michael R. Lyu.
    "Combatting Front-Running in Smart Contracts: Attack Mining, Benchmark Construction and Vulnerability Detector Evaluation".In IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume. 49, Article No. 6, pp 3630–3646.
    [Paper][Project]
  18. [ASE 2021] Lu Liu, Lili Wei, Wuqi Zhang, Ming Wen, Yepang Liu and Shing-Chi Cheung.
    "Characterizing Transaction-Reverting Statements inEthereum Smart Contracts".In the 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Melbourne, Australia, Nov 2021, 12 pages.
    [Paper][Project]
  19. [ASE 2021] Huaxun Huang, Ming Wen, Lili Wei, Yepang Liu and Shing-Chi Cheung.
    "Characterizing and Detecting Configuration Compatibility Issues in Android Apps".In the 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Melbourne, Australia, Nov 2021, 12 pages.
    [Paper][Project]
  20. [ESEC/FSE 2021] Wuqi Zhang, Lili Wei*, Shuqing Li, Yepang Liu and Shing-Chi Cheung.
    "ÐArcher: Detecting On-Chain-Off-Chain Synchronization Bugs in Decentralized Applications".In the 29th ACM Joint European SoftwareEngineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Athens, Greece, Aug 2021, pp.553-565.
    * I am the corresponding author of this paper.
    [Paper][Project]
  21. [MOBILESoft 2021] Julian Harty*, Haonan Zhang*, Lili Wei, Luca Pascarella, Maurício Aniche and Weiyi Shang.
    "Logging Practices with Mobile Analytics: An Empirical Study on Firebase".In the 8th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems, Madrid, Spain, May 2021, 5 pages.
    [Paper][Project]
  22. [Security 2021] Bingyu Shen, Lili Wei, Chengcheng Xiang, Yudong Wu, Mingyao Shen, Yuanyuan Zhou, Xinxin Jin.
    "Can Systems Explain Permissions Better? Understanding Users' Misperceptions under Smartphone Runtime Permission Model". In the 30th USENIX Security Symposium, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Aug 2021, 18 pages.
    [Paper][Appendix][Dataset]
  23. [TSE 2020] Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, S.C. Cheung, Huaxun Huang, Xuan Lu, and Xuanzhe Liu.
    "Understanding and Detecting Fragmentation-Induced Compatibility Issues for Android Apps". In IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 1176-1199, 1 Nov. 2020, doi: 10.1109/TSE.2018.2876439.
    [Paper]
  24. [ASE 2020] Hengcheng Zhu, Lili Wei*, Ming Wen, Yepang Liu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Qin Sheng, Cui Zhou.
    "MockSniffer: Characterizing and Recommending Mocking Decisions for Unit Tests". In the 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Melbourne, Australia, Sep 2020, pp. 436-447. [acceptance rate: 22.5%]
    * I am the co-first author of this paper.
    [pdf]
  25. [EMSE 2019] Yepang Liu, Jue Wang, Lili Wei, Chang Xu, Shing-Chi Cheung, Tianyong Wu, Jun Yan, Jian Zhang.
    "DroidLeaks: A Comprehensive Database of Resource Leaks in Android Apps". In Empirical Software Engineering. vol. 24, pp. 3435–3483 (2019), doi: 10.1007/s10664-019-09715-8.
  26. [ICSE 2019] Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, S.C. Cheung.
    "PIVOT: Learning API-Device Correlations to Facilitate Android Compatibility Issue Detection". In Proceedings of 41st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering, Montreal, Canada, May 2019, pp. 878-888. [acceptance rate: 109/529 = 20.6%]
    ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Artifact Award.
    [Paper][Project][Slides]
  27. [APSEC 2018] Cong Li, Chang Xu, Lili Wei, Jue Wang, Jun Ma, and Jian Lu.
    "ELEGANT: Towards Effective Location of Fragmentation-Induced Compatibility Issues for Android Apps" in Proceedings of the 25th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, Nara, Japan, Dec 2018, Nara, Japan, Dec 2018, pp. 278-287. [acceptance rate: 27.2%]
  28. [ASE 2018] Huaxun Huang, Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, and S.C. Cheung.
    “Understanding and Detecting Callback Compatibility Issues for Android Applications”. In Proceedings of the The 33rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Montpellier, France, Sep 2018, pp. 531-541. [acceptance rate: 69/346 = 19.9%]
    [Paper] [Project]
  29. [ASE 2018] Jiajun Hu, Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, and S.C. Cheung, and Huaxun Huang.
    “A Tale of Two Cities: How WebView Induces Bugs to Android Applications”. In Proceedings of the The 33rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Montpellier, France, Sep 2018, pp. 702-713. [acceptance rate: 69/346 = 19.9%]
    [Paper] [Project]
  30. [ESEC/FSE 2017] Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, and S.C. Cheung.
    “OASIS: Prioritizing Static Analysis Warnings for Android Apps Based on App User Reviews”. In Proceedings of the 11th joint meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Paderborn, Germany, Sep 2017, pp. 672-682. [acceptance rate: 72/295 = 24.4%]
    [Paper] [Project]
  31. [ASE 2016] Lili Wei, Yepang Liu, and S.C. Cheung.
    “Taming Android Fragmentation: Characterizing and Detecting Compatibility Issues for Android Apps”. In Proceedings of the 31st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Singapore, Sep 2016, pp. 226-237. [acceptance rate: 57/298 = 19.1%]
    ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award.
    [Paper] [Slides] [Project]

Honors and Awards

  1. Peter Silvester Faculty Research Award in Electrical & Computer Engineering (McGill University)
  2. Distinguished Reviewer (ASE 2022)
  3. Hong Kong RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (2020)
  4. ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Artifact Award (ICSE 2019)
  5. Google PhD Fellowship (in Mobile Computing, 2018) [link]
  6. Microsoft Research Asia PhD Fellowship (2018) [link]
  7. SENG Top Rpg Award (School of Engineering, HKUST 2017-2018, 2018-2019)
  8. ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award (ASE 2016)
  9. Postgraduate Studentship (HKUST, 2015-2020)
  10. People’s Scholarship Second Class (Nanjing University, 2014)
  11. Outstanding Student of Nanjing University (Nanjing University, 2013)
  12. People’s Scholarship First Class (Nanjing University, 2012)

Selected Academic Services

Teaching Experiences

    At McGill:
  1. ECSE 250: Fundamentals of Software Development
  2. ECSE 321: Introduction to Software Engineering
  3. ECSE 688: Automated Software Testing and Analysis
    4. At HKUST:
  4. TA for COMP 3021 Java Programming. (2018-2019 Fall)
  5. TA for COMP 5111 Fundamentals of Software Analysis. (2017-2018 Spring)
  6. TA for CSIT 5100 Engineering Reliable Object-Oriented Software Systems. (2017-2018 Spring)
  7. TA for COMP 3111/COMP 3111H Software Engineering. (2017-2018 Fall)
  8. TA for CSIT 5100 Object-Oriented Software Development of Enterprise Systems. (2016-2017 Fall)
  9. TA for CSIT 5100 Object-Oriented Software Development of Enterprise Systems. (2015-2016 Spring)

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