Xinyu Gao
Xinyu Gao

Ph.D. Student, Nanjing University

xinyugao@smail.nju.edu.cn
I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Software Engineering at Nanjing University, under the guidance of Prof. Yang Feng, Prof. Zhenyu Chen, and Prof. Baowen Xu. Moreover, I am visiting the Momentum Lab, Dept. of Computer Science at The University of Tokyo, led by Prof. Lei Ma. My research focuses on the reliability assurance of AI-enabled complex software systems, particularly autonomous driving systems, within the field of Software Engineering (SE). Recently, I have been exploring testing, analysis, and repair techniques for multi-sensor fusion-based perception systems in autonomous driving. My work has been published in top-tier SE venues such as ICSE, FSE, ASE, and ISSTA, and was honored with a Distinguished Paper Award at FSE 2023.
Interests
  • Robustness of Multi-Sensor Fusion Systems. This involves analyzing and testing robustness issues, particularly those arising from heterogeneous data fusion in multi-sensor systems, with autonomous driving serving as a key research focus.
    [MultiTest, ICSE'24] [🏆MSFBenchmark, FSE'23]
  • Quality Assurance of Autonomous Driving Systems. This focuses on evaluating and enhancing the reliability of Autonomous Driving Systems, using methods like high-fidelity simulator testing and data-driven testing approaches.
    [CooTest, ISSTA'24] [SoVar, ASE'24]
  • Quality Assurance of Complex AI Systems. This involves investigating how we can analyze, test, and enhance complex AI-based software systems, with autonomous systems serving as a typical example of AI-enabled software.
    [ATS, ICSE'22] [DeepGini, ISSTA'20]
Featured Publications
MultiTest: Physical-Aware Object Insertion for Testing Multi-sensor Fusion Perception Systems
Benchmarking Robustness of AI-Enabled Multi-sensor Fusion Systems: Challenges and Opportunities
Recent Publications

MultiTest: Physical-Aware Object Insertion for Testing Multi-sensor Fusion Perception Systems

Xinyu Gao, Zhijie Wang, Yang Feng, Lei Ma, Zhenyu Chen, Baowen Xu

Proceedings of the 46th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2024, CCF-A)
PDF DOI Cite Code WEBSITE

Benchmarking Robustness of AI-Enabled Multi-sensor Fusion Systems: Challenges and Opportunities

Xinyu Gao, Zhijie Wang, Yang Feng, Lei Ma, Zhenyu Chen, Baowen Xu

Proceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2023, CCF-A)
ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award
PDF DOI Cite Code WEBSITE

SoVAR: Build Generalizable Scenarios from Accident Reports for Autonomous Driving Testing

An Guo, Yuan Zhou, Haoxiang Tian, Chunrong Fang, Yunjian Sun, Weisong Sun, Xinyu Gao, Anh Tuan Luu, Yang Liu, Zhenyu Chen

Proceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2024, CCF-A)
PDF DOI Cite Code

CooTest: An Automated Testing Approach for V2X Communication Systems

An Guo, Xinyu Gao, Zhenyu Chen, Yuan Xiao, Jiakai Liu, Xiuting Ge, Weisong Sun, Chunrong Fang

Proceedings of the 33rd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA 2024, CCF-A)
PDF DOI Cite Code

Adaptive Test Selection for Deep Neural Networks

Xinyu Gao, Yang Feng, Yining Yin, Zixi Liu, Zhenyu Chen, Baowen Xu

44th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2022, CCF-A)
PDF DOI Cite Code Video

DeepGini: Prioritizing Massive Tests to Enhance the Robustness of Deep Neural Networks

Yang Feng, Qingkai Shi, Xinyu Gao, Jun Wan, Chunrong Fang, Zhenyu Chen

Proceedings of the 29th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA 2020, CCF-A)
PDF DOI Cite Code
See all publications
Award and Honors
  • ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award (ESEC/FSE'23)
  • National Scholarship for Postgraduate Students (2021)
  • China Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarships (2023)
  • NR Scholarship Talents Scholarship by Nanjing University (2024)
  • Talents Scholarship by Nanjing University (2023, 2022)
Services and Talks
  • [Teaching] As of June 2024, I have helped over 7 students with their research projects, including 1 undergraduate and 6 master's theses.
  • [Co-Review] To date, I have assisted in reviewing over 30 manuscripts, including those for AITest 2021, TR 2021, QRS 2021, TOSEM 2021, Journal of Software 2022, ICSE 2022, ISSTA 2023, TSE 2023, TSE 2024, ESWA 2024, ISSTA 2024, and ISSTA 2025.
  • [Presentation] I presented our paper at the ICSE 2022 conference.
  • [Volunteer] Served as a volunteer at the 2019 NJSD Global Software Conference.
Academia
Nanjing University
2021.09 - present
Ph.D. Software Engineering
Supervised by Prof. Yang Feng, Prof. Zhenyu Chen and Prof. Baowen Xu.
The University of Tokyo (Visiting)
2024.07 - present
Computer Science
Supervised by Prof. Lei Ma
University of Alberta duration (Visiting)
2023.10 - 2024.03
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Supervised by Prof. Lei Ma
Nanjing University
2019.09 - 2021.06
MEng Software Engineering
Supervised by Prof. Yang Feng, Prof. Zhenyu Chen
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
2015.09 - 2019.06