(he/him/his)
Ph.D. Candidate in Software Engineering (2028)
Hang Du is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Software Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, where he is fortunate to be advised by Prof. James A. Jones. He also receives mentorship from Dr. Vijay Krishna Palepu, a SpiderLab alumnus currently at Microsoft. He earned his B.Sc. in Computer Science from Jilin University in China and an M.S. in Software Engineering from UC Irvine.
Hang Du’s research centers on advancing software testing, with a focus on mutation testing, dynamic analysis, and program comprehension, emphasizing techniques and tools that deliver practical value to developers. Looking ahead, his research seeks to strengthen automated approaches to testing and refactoring, enabling more effective, scalable, and sustainable quality assurance practices.
Mutations are simply a fancy term for injected bugs in software. Imagine airport security: mutation testing is like sneaking in fake threats—say a toy knife or a water bottle—to check if TSA catches them. If security doesn’t notice, that’s a red flag. In the same way, if your tests don’t catch these fake bugs, they might also miss real ones.
Ph.D. Software Engineering (continuing)
University of California, Irvine
MS Software Engineering
University of California, Irvine
BS Computer Science
Jilin University, China
[ASE 25] We introduce Disjoint Assertion Tangle (DAT), a novel test-code smell, and present U2W, a tool that detects and refactors such smells into focused and parameterized tests …
[ICSE 25] Sometimes a simple, localized edit, i.e., adding an additional assertion, may substantially improve the test suite effectiveness by crossfiring mutants.
[ICSE 24] Many faults propagate without revealing as failures, suggesting that observing propagated infections can substantially improve test effectiveness through assertion …
[ISSTA 23] Mutation scores alone can be misleading. The nature of kills must be considered when evaluating test quality.