Minxue Pan

Associate Professor
Software Institute
State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology
Nanjing University, China
mxpnju.edu.cn



Focusing on the dependability of complex software systems, my research interests include software modelling and verification, software analysis and testing, cyber-physical systems, mobile computing, and intelligent software engineering. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Technology from Nanjing University in 2014 (supervisor Prof. Xuandong Li). Before that, I obtained my B.Sc. degree, also from Nanjing University. Between 2009 and 2010, I studied in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley (supervisor Prof. Edward A. Lee).

Latest News

  • I am looking for motivated graduate students. Both master and Ph.D. students are welcome. Please send me emails with your CV if you are interested in making dependable and intelligent software systems.

  • Oct 25, 2021: One paper accepted by the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM).

  • May 8, 2021: One paper accepted to ICML 2021.

  • April 19, 2021: One paper accepted to ISSTA 2021.

  • June 23, 2020: One paper accepted by the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE).

  • June 8, 2020: Our ISSTA'20 paper has won the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award!


Recent Selected Publications (More in Google Scholar and DBLP)

  • [TOSEM 2021] Wenhua Yang, Chong Zhang, Minxue Pan, Chang Xu, Yu Zhou, and Zhiqiu Huang. Do Developers Really Know How to Use Git Commands? A Large-Scale Study Using Stack Overflow. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 2021, forthcoming.

  • [ISSTA 2021] Tongtong Xu, Minxue Pan, Yu Pei, Guiyin Li, Xia Zeng, Tian Zhang, Yuetang Deng, and Xuandong Li. GUIDER: GUI Structure and Vision Co-Guided Test Script Repair for Android Apps. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, pp. 191-203. July 11–17, 2021, Virtual, Denmark. [acceptance rate: 51/233=21.9%][link] [pdf]

  • [ICML 2021] Zhong Li, Minxue Pan, Tian Zhang, and Xuandong Li. Testing DNN-based Autonomous Driving Systems under Critical Environmental Conditions. In Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 139: 6471-6482, 2021. [link] [pdf]

  • [STVR 2021] Renhe Jiang, Zhengzhao Chen, Yu Pei, Minxue Pan, Tian Zhang, and Xuandong Li. Documentation-based Functional Constraint Generation for Library Methods. Software: Testing, Verification and Reliability. 2021;e1785. [link] [pdf]

  • [TSE 2020] Minxue Pan, Tongtong Xu, Yu Pei, Zhong Li, Tian Zhang, and Xuandong Li. GUI-Guided Test Script Repair for Mobile Apps. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, early access. [link] [pdf]

  • [ESEC/FSE 2020] Juan Zhai, Yu Shi, Minxue Pan, Guian Zhou, Yongxiang Liu, Chunrong Fang, Shiqing Ma, Lin Tan, and Xiangyu Zhang. C2S: Translating Natural Language Comments to Formal Program Specifications. In Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, pp. 25-37. November 8–13, 2020, Virtual Event, USA. [acceptance rate: 101/360=28%] [pdf]

  • [ISSTA 2020 (Distinguished Paper Award)] Minxue Pan, An Huang, Guoxin Wang, Tian Zhang, and Xuandong Li. Reinforcement Learning Based Curiosity-driven Testing of Android Applications. In Proceedings of the 29th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, pp. 153-164. July 18–22, 2020, Virtual Event, USA. [acceptance rate: 74/303=24.4%][link] [pdf]

  • [TSE 2020] Tongtong Xu, Liushan Chen, Yu Pei, Tian Zhang, Minxue Pan, Carlo A. Furia. RESTORE: Retrospective Fault Localization Enhancing Automated Program Repair. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, early access. [link] [pdf]

  • [ICPC 2020] Zejun Zhang, Minxue Pan, Tian Zhang, Xinyu Zhou, and Xuandong Li. Deep-Diving into Documentation to Develop Improved Java-to-Swift API Mapping. In Proceedings of the 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension, pp. 106-116. July 13-15, 2020, Virtual Event, Republic of Korea. [link] [pdf]

  • [JSS 2020] Zhengzhao Chen, Renhe Jiang, Zejun Zhang, Yu Pei, Minxue Pan, Tian Zhang and Xuandong Li. Enhancing Example-Based Code Search with Functional Semantics. Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 165, 2020, Article 110568. [link] [pdf]

  • [ICSE 2020] Juan Zhai, Xiangzhe Xu, Yu Shi, Guanhong Tao, Minxue Pan, Shiqing Ma, Lei Xu, Weifeng Zhang, Lin Tan, Xiangyu Zhang. CPC: Automatically Classifying and Propagating Natural Language Comments via Program Analysis. In Proceedings of the 42st International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 1359-1371. July 6-11, 2020, Virtual Event, Republic of Korea. [acceptance rate: 129/617=20.9%] [link] [pdf]

  • [JSS 2020] Minxue Pan, Yifei Lu, Yu Pei, Tian Zhang, Juan Zhai, Xuandong Li. Effective Testing of Android Apps Using Extended IFML Models. Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 159, 2020, Article 110433. [link] [pdf]

  • [ESEC/FSE 2019] Yifei Lu, Minxue Pan, Juan Zhai, Tian Zhang, and Xuandong Li. Preference-Wise Testing for Android Applications. In Proceedings of the 27th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, pp. 268-278. August 26–30, 2019, Tallinn, Estonia. [acceptance rate: 74/303=24.4%][link] [pdf]

  • [ICSE 2019] Minxue Pan, Shouyu Chen, Yu Pei, Tian Zhang, and Xuandong Li. Easy modelling and verification of unpredictable and preemptive interrupt-driven systems. In Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 212-222. May 25-31, 2019, Montréal, QC, Canada. [acceptance rate: 105/502=20.9%] [link] [pdf]

  • [SoSyM 2019] Xiao He, Tian Zhang, Minxue Pan, Zhiyi Ma, and Chang-Jun Hu. Template-based model generation. Software & Systems Modeling (2019), Volume 18, Issue 3, pp. 2051–2092. [link]

  • [ASE 2018] Zhenhao Tang, Juan Zhai, Minxue Pan, Yousra Aafer, Shiqing Ma, Xiangyu Zhang, and Jianhua Zhao. Dual-force: understanding WebView malware via cross-language forced execution. In Proceedings of the 33rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, pp. 714-725. September 3-7, 2018, Montpellier, France. [acceptance rate: 83/346=23.9%] [link] [pdf]

  • [SCAM 2018] Renhe Jiang, Zhengzhao Chen, Zejun Zhang, Yu Pei, Minxue Pan and Tian Zhang. Semantics-Based Code Search Using Input/Output Examples. In Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation, pp. 92-102. September 23-24, 2018, Madrid, Spain. [link] [pdf]

  • [TOIT 2018] Wenhua Yang, Chang Xu, Minxue Pan, Xiaoxing Ma, and Jian Lu. Improving Verification Accuracy of CPS by Modeling and Calibrating Interaction Uncertainty. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (2018), Volume 18 Issue 2, Article No. 20. [link] [pdf]

  • [JSS 2018] Wenhua Yang, Chang Xu, Minxue Pan, Chun Cao, Xiaoxing Ma, and Jian Lu. Efficient validation of self-adaptive applications by counterexample probability maximization. Journal of Systems and Software (2018), Volume 138, pp. 82-99. [link] [pdf]

  • [ICST 2018] Ruihua Ji, Zhong Li, Shouyu Chen, Minxue Pan, Tian Zhang, Shaukat Ali, Tao Yue and Xuandong Li. Uncovering Unknown System Behaviors in Uncertain Networks with Model and Search-Based Testing. In Proceedings of the IEEE 11th International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation, pp. 204–214. April 9-13, 2018, Västerås, Sweden. [link] [pdf]


Teaching

  • Advanced Programming with C++. Undergraduate compulsory course.

  • Software System Design. Undergraduate compulsory course.

  • Software Construction. Undergraduate compulsory course.

  • Advanced Software Design. Graduate compulsory course.
Visit Moodle for course materials.

Tools and Codes

  • Q-testing is an automated testing tool for Android applications. It uses a reinforcement-learning based curiosity-driven strategy to explore the state space of the application under test.

  • ISDChecker model checks interrupt-driven systems. It adopts our modelling language interrupt sequence diagrams to model the systems, and checks for both temporal and timing related problems.

  • PREFEST performs preference-wise testing on Android apps. It can improve the test coverage by considering different preference option combinations and detect more preference related bugs.

  • Sketchoid searches the desired Android app GUI code in app repositories, using simple hand-drawn GUI designs.

  • PI-REC. If you want to have some nice pictures or icons for your apps or tools but are not so perfect in drawing, try our PI-REC. It can turn hand-drawn drafts into beautiful and realistic paintings.

  • TASS is a timing analyzer of scenario-based specifications. It is no longer maintained; however, we are working actively to incorporate TASS and ISDChecker into a model checking framework.