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, 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
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 Track. 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. 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. 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
Teaching
Courses
CIS*6650: Topics in Computer Science I (2026 Fall)
Topic: Data-Driven Software Engineering
University of Guelph
CIS*1050: Web Design and Development (2026 Summer)
University of Guelph
CIS*4250: Software Design V (2026 Winter)
University of Guelph
COMP 6905: Software Engineering (2025 Fall)
Memorial University of Newfoundland
AI 6001: Topics in Artificial Intelligence (2025 Winter)
Topic: AI-Based Software
Memorial University of Newfoundland
AI 6002: Capstone for Artificial Intelligence (2024 Fall)
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Guest Lectures
SE 464: Software Design and Architectures (2024 Fall, 2025 Fall)
Topic: Software Architectural Modeling
University of Waterloo
DSCI 6690: Data Science Case Study Series (2025 Fall)
Topic: Software Performance Modeling and Regression Detection
Memorial University of Newfoundland
ECE 453: Software Testing, Quality Assurance, and Maintenance (2024 Winter)
Topic: Software Load Testing
University of Waterloo
About
Academic Services
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Conference/Workshop Organization
The ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), Registration Chair, 2026
The ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), Data Challenge Co-Chair, 2026
The International Workshop on DevOps for Sustainability (DevOpsSustain), Co-Chair, 2026
The International Workshop on Load Testing and Benchmarking of Software Systems (LTB), Co-Chair, 2025
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Program Committee Member
The IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), Research Track, 2027
The ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), Research Track, 2026
The ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), Industry Track, 2026
The IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER), Research Track, 2025, 2026
The IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), Research Track, 2025, 2026
The ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), Ideas, Visions and Reflections Track, 2026
The IEEE International Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC), Symposium on Software Engineering Technologies & Applications (SETA) Track, 2025, 2026
The CCF International Conference on Service Science (ICSS), Research Track, 2026
The International Workshop on Load Testing and Benchmarking of Software Systems (LTB), 2022, 2023, 2026
The ACM International Conference on AI-powered Software (AIware), Main Track, 2025
The IEEE International Conference on Collaborative Advances in Software and Computing (CASCON), Poster Track, 2025
The ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), Artifact Evaluation Track, 2023, 2024, 2025
The ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), Data Challenge Track, 2023, 2024
The ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), Artifact Evaluation Track, 2022, 2023
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Journal Reviewer
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Grant Reviewer
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Research Member
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) Research Group - DevOps Performance Working Group, Secretary, Sept. 2024 - Present
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) Research Group, Member, June 2020 - Present
Industrial Experiences
Research Intern (May 2019 – Aug. 2024)
ERA Environmental Management Solutions, 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
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
ACM SIGSOFT CAPS Travel Award, ACM SIGSOFT, 2021, 2022, 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