Lizhi Liao

Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Guelph, ON, Canada

Hi there! I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science (SoCS) at the University of Guelph. I received my PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, under the supervision of Dr. Weiyi Shang.

My general research area is Software Engineering. In particular, my main research focuses on improving AI software performance and developing fast and efficient software in fast-paced development and release practices (e.g., DevOps). My detailed research interests include software performance engineering, AI software system quality, software log analysis, and web GUI testing.

I am currently seeking highly self-motivated PhD, Master's, and Undergraduate research students to work with me. If you are interested, please submit your application here.

Publications

    Yuanjie Xia, Kundi Yao, Lizhi Liao, Daniele Di Pompeo, Catia Trubiani, Boris Zibitsker, and Weiyi Shang. "HQP: Hybrid Queueing and Configuration-Aware Performance Modeling for Microservice Systems." ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2026. LINK PDF

    Renming Zheng, Yutong Zhao, Lu Xiao, Weiyi Shang, and Lizhi Liao. "Beyond Reproduction: Uncovering Latent Performance Regressions with LLM-Guided Fuzzing." The 17th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE 2026), Emerging Research Track. LINK PDF

    Xiaohui Wang, Kundi Yao, Lizhi Liao, Pengyu Nie, Xuan Zhang, and Weiyi Shang. "World of Logs: A Dataset of Logs from Online Documents." The 23rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2026), Data Track. LINK PDF

    Lizhi Liao, Weiyi Shang, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma, and Sarah Sajedi. "On the Practical Adoption of a Static Performance Anti-Pattern Detector: An Industrial Case Study." The 33rd IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER 2026), Industry Track. LINK PDF

    Haonan Zhang, Kundi Yao, Zishuo Ding, Lizhi Liao, and Weiyi Shang. "Who's to Blame? Rethinking the Brittleness of Automated Web GUI Testing from a Pragmatic Perspective." The 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2025). LINK PDF

    Lizhi Liao, Simon Eismann, Heng Li, Cor-Paul Bezemer, Diego Elias Costa, André van Hoorn, and Weiyi Shang. "Early Detection of Performance Regressions by Bridging Local Performance Data and Architectural Models." The 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025). LINK PDF
    🏆 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award

    Haonan Zhang, Lizhi Liao, Zishuo Ding, Weiyi Shang, Nidhi Narula, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma, and Sarah Sajedi. "Towards a Robust Waiting Strategy for Web GUI Testing for an Industrial Software System." The 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2024), Industry Track. LINK PDF

    Yuanjie Xia, Lizhi Liao, Jinfu Chen, Heng Li, and Weiyi Shang. "Reducing the Length of Field-Replay Based Load Testing." IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2024. LINK PDF

    Lizhi Liao, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma, and Sarah Sajedi. "Adapting Performance Analytic Techniques in a Real-World Database-Centric System: An Industrial Experience Report." The 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2023), Industry Track. LINK PDF

    Lizhi Liao. "Addressing Performance Regressions in DevOps: Can We Escape from System Performance Testing?" The 45th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023), Doctoral Symposium. LINK PDF

    Simon Eismann, Diego Elias Costa, Lizhi Liao, Cor-Paul Bezemer, Weiyi Shang, André van Hoorn, and Samuel Kounev. "A Case Study on the Stability of Performance Tests for Serverless Applications." Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), 2022. LINK PDF

    Lizhi Liao, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang, and Lei Ma. "An Empirical Study of the Impact of Hyperparameter Tuning and Model Optimization on the Performance Properties of Deep Neural Networks." ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2022. LINK PDF

    Lizhi Liao, Jinfu Chen, Heng Li, Yi Zeng, Weiyi Shang, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma, and Sarah Sajedi. "Locating Performance Regression Root Causes in the Field Operations of Web-based Systems: An Experience Report." IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2021. LINK PDF

    Lizhi Liao, Jinfu Chen, Heng Li, Yi Zeng, Weiyi Shang, Jianmei Guo, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma, and Sarah Sajedi. "Using Black-Box Performance Models to Detect Performance Regressions under Varying Workloads: An Empirical Study." Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), 2020. LINK PDF

Teaching

Courses

    CIS*6650: Topics in Computer Science I (Fall 2026)
    Topic: Data-Driven Software Engineering
    University of Guelph

    CIS*1050: Web Design and Development (Summer 2026)
    University of Guelph

    CIS*4250: Software Design V (Winter 2026)
    University of Guelph

    COMP 6905: Software Engineering (Fall 2025)
    Memorial University of Newfoundland

    AI 6001: Topics in Artificial Intelligence (Winter 2025)
    Topic: AI-Based Software
    Memorial University of Newfoundland

    AI 6002: Capstone for Artificial Intelligence (Fall 2024)
    Memorial University of Newfoundland

Guest Lectures

    SE 464: Software Design and Architectures (Fall 2024, Fall 2025)
    Topic: Software Architectural Modeling
    University of Waterloo

    DSCI 6690: Data Science Case Study Series (Fall 2025)
    Topic: Software Performance Modeling and Regression Detection
    Memorial University of Newfoundland

    ECE 453: Software Testing, Quality Assurance, and Maintenance (Winter 2024)
    Topic: Software Load Testing
    University of Waterloo

About

Professional Activities

Industrial Experience

    Research Collaborator (May 2019 – Aug. 2024)
    ERA Environmental, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Software Developer Intern (Jan. 2019 – May 2019)
    Nakisa, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Awards

    ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award for "Early Detection of Performance Regressions by Bridging Local Performance Data and Architectural Models" at ICSE 2025, Ottawa, Canada

    ACM SIGSOFT CAPS Travel Award, ACM SIGSOFT, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2026

    International Doctoral Student Award, University of Waterloo, 2023, 2024

    University of Waterloo Graduate Scholarship, University of Waterloo, 2024

    Electrical & Computer Engineering International Doctoral Student Award, University of Waterloo, 2023, 2024

    Graduate Student Research Dissemination Award, University of Waterloo, 2023

    Concordia University Conference and Exposition Award, Concordia University, 2022, 2023

    Concordia GSA Conference Award, Concordia University, 2022, 2023

    Concordia International Tuition Award of Excellence, Concordia University, 2019

Hobbies

    I love snowboarding, playing the guitar, and taking long-distance road trips (I once drove across Canada).

Contact

You can reach me via:

    E-mail: lizhi {DOTs} liao {ATs} uoguelph {DOTs} ca

    Location: Reynolds 2204, University of Guelph, 474 Gordon St., Guelph, ON, Canada, N1G 1Y4