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Qirun Zhang

Catherine M. and James E. Allchin Early Career
Assistant Professor
School of Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology

Office: Klaus Advanced Computing Building 2324
Email: qrzhang@gatech.edu
[Research Interests] [Publications] [Projects] [Courses] [Service] [Students] [Misc]

newsMy group has open positions for Fall 2025. Please drop me an email (with your transcript) if you are interested.

I am looking for motivated and talented students to work with. If you are interested, please contact me.

Research Interests

My research interests are in the areas of programming languages and software engineering, specifically focusing on techniques for improving software reliability and security.

In particular, I enjoy working on program analysis and compiler optimization problems from perspectives such as computational complexity, analytic combinatorics, graph theory, and formal languages.

Publications

  1. Retrieving Unknown SMT Formulas via Structural Mutations
    Shuo Ding, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Vivek Sarkar Festschrift Symposium (VIVEKFEST), 2024.
  2. The Normalization Barrier Revisited
    Shuo Ding, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Jens Palsberg Festschrift Symposium (JENSFEST), 2024.
  3. SMT Theory Arbitrage: Approximating Unbounded Constraints using Bounded Theories
    Benjamin Mikek, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2024.
  4. Context-Free Language Reachability via Skewed Tabulation
    Yuxiang Lei*, Camille Bossut*, Yulei Sui, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2024.
  5. Mutual Refinements of Context-Free Language Reachability
    Shuo Ding, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of the International Static Analysis Symposium (SAS), 2023.
  6. Speeding up SMT Solving via Compiler Optimization
    Benjamin Mikek, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of the Symposium on Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), 2023. (SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award)
  7. Recursive State Machine Guided Graph Folding for Context-Free Language Reachability
    Yuxiang Lei, Yulei Sui, Shin Hwei Tan, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2023.
  8. Witnessability of Undecidable Problems
    Shuo Ding, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), 2023.
  9. Single-Source-Single-Target Interleaved-Dyck Reachability via Integer Linear Programming
    Yuanbo Li, Qirun Zhang, Thomas Reps
    In Proceedings of Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), 2023.
  10. Studying and Understanding the Tradeoffs Between Generality and Reduction in Software Debloating
    Qi Xin, Qirun Zhang, Alex Orso
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2022.
  11. Taming Transitive Redundancy for Context-Free Language Reachability
    Yuxiang Lei, Yulei Sui, Shuo Ding, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Object Oriented Programming Systems Languages and Applications (OOPSLA), 2022. (Distinguished Artifact Award)
  12. Static Inference Meets Deep Learning: A Hybrid Type Inference Approach for Python
    Yun Peng, Cuiyun Gao, Zongjie Li, Bowei Gao, David Lo, Qirun Zhang, Michael Lyu
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2022.
  13. Fast Graph Simplification for Interleaved Dyck-Reachability.
    Yuanbo Li, Qirun Zhang, Thomas Reps
    In ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), 2022. Invited Paper.
  14. Efficient Algorithms for Dynamic Bidirected Dyck-Reachability
    Yuanbo Li, Kris Satya, Qirun Zhang
    In Proceedings of Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), 2022.
  15. On the Complexity of Bidirected Interleaved Dyck-Reachability
    Yuanbo Li, Qirun Zhang, Thomas Reps
    In Proceedings of Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), 2021.
  16. Subdomain-Based Generality-Aware Debloating
    Qi Xin, Myeongsoo Kim, Qirun Zhang, Alex Orso
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2020.
  17. Debug Information Validation for Optimized Code
    Yuanbo Li, Shuo Ding, Qirun Zhang, Davide Italiano
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2020.
  18. Fast Graph Simplification for Interleaved Dyck-Reachability.
    Yuanbo Li, Qirun Zhang, Thomas Reps
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2020. (PLDI Distinguished Paper Award)
    Invited to ACM TOPLAS.
  19. Program Debloating via Stochastic Optimization
    Qi Xin, Myeongsoo Kim, Qirun Zhang, Alex Orso
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), NIER Paper, 2020.
  20. Practical GUI Testing of Android Applications via Model Abstraction and Refinement
    Tianxiao Gu, Chengnian Sun, Xiaoxing Ma, Chun Cao, Chang Xu, Yuan Yao, Qirun Zhang, Jian Lu and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2019.
  21. Calling-to-Reference Context Translation via Constraint-Guided CFL-Reachability
    Cheng Cai, Qirun Zhang, Zhiqiang Zuo, Khanh Nguyen, Harry Xu and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2018.
  22. Perses: Syntax-Guided Program Reduction
    Chengnian Sun, Yuanbo Li, Qirun Zhang, Tianxiao Gu and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2018.
  23. Skeletal Program Enumeration for Rigorous Compiler Testing
    Qirun Zhang, Chengnian Sun and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2017.
  24. Context-Sensitive Data-Dependence Analysis via Linear Conjunctive Language Reachability
    Qirun Zhang and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), 2017.
  25. Toward Understanding Compiler Bugs in GCC and LLVM
    Chengnian Sun, Vu Le, Qirun Zhang, and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2016.
  26. Efficient Subcubic Alias Analysis for C
    Qirun Zhang, Xiao Xiao, Charles Zhang, Hao Yuan, and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of Object Oriented Programming Systems Languages and Applications (OOPSLA), 2014.
  27. Persistent pointer information
    Xiao Xiao, Qirun Zhang, Jinguo Zhou, and Charles Zhang
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2014.
  28. Fast Algorithms for Dyck-CFL-Reachability with Applications to Alias Analysis
    Qirun Zhang, Michael R. Lyu, Hao Yuan, and Zhendong Su
    In Proceedings of Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2013.
  29. Flow-Augmented Call Graph: A New Foundation for Taming API Complexity
    Qirun Zhang, Wujie Zheng and Michael R. Lyu
    In Proceedings of Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE), 2011.
  30. Cross-Library API Recommendation Using Web Search Engines
    Wujie Zheng, Qirun Zhang, and Michael R. Lyu
    In Proceedings of the Symposium on Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), New Ideas Track, 2011.
  31. Random Unit-Test Generation with MUT-aware Sequence Recommendation
    Wujie Zheng, Qirun Zhang, Michael Lyu, and Tao Xie
    In Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), Short Paper, 2010.

Projects

Courses

Service

Students

Current PhD students

I am also working with the following student(s) at GT:

Former students

Misc