Zhiyu Fan

Bio

I'm a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, working on AI for Coding. I earned my PhD degree from School of Computing at the National University of Singapore, where I was advised by Prof. Abhik Roychoudhury. Previously, I obtained my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from SUSTech in China, where I was advised by Prof. Shin Hwei Tan.

My research focuses on AI for Coding — building autonomous systems that can understand, write, and improve code. I explore how large language models can be leveraged for program repair, code generation, and autonomous debugging, with the goal of creating AI agents that work alongside developers to build more reliable software. I am also interested in the emerging paradigm of vibe coding, where developers express intent in natural language and AI translates it into working code. Additionally, I study the security and trustworthiness challenges of coding agents to ensure they can be safely deployed in real-world development workflows.

Publications

• [CSEE&T 2025] Software Engineering Educational Experience in Building an Intelligent Tutoring System Paper

  Zhiyu Fan, Yannic Noller, Ashish Dandekar, Abhik Roychoudhury

  Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), previously known as ICSE-SEET, 2025

• [ISSTA 2024] AutoCodeRover: Autonomous Program Improvement Paper

  Yuntong Zhang, Haifeng Ruan, Zhiyu Fan, Abhik Roychoudhury

  International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2024

• [ISSTA 2024] Oracle-guided Program Selection from Large Language Models Paper

  Zhiyu Fan, Haifeng Ruan, Sergey Mechtaev, Abhik Roychoudhury

  International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2024

• [ICSE 2023] Automated Repair of Programs from Large Language Models Paper

  Zhiyu Fan, Xiang Gao, Martin Mirchev, Abhik Roychoudhury, Shin Hwei Tan

  IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2023.

• [ISSTA 2023] Concept-based Automated Grading of CS-1 Programming Assignments Paper

  Zhiyu Fan, Shin Hwei Tan, Abhik Roychoudhury

  International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), 2023.

• [TOSEM 2022] Verifix: Verified Repair of Programming Assignments Paper

  Umair Z. Ahmed*, Zhiyu Fan*, Jooyong Yi, Omar I. Al-Bataineh, Abhik Roychoudhury.

  ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), 2022.

Services

• PC Member, FSE'26 Research Track
• Reviewer for TSE, TOSEM since 2023
• PC Member for APR Workshop @ ICSE 2024
• Reviewer for SIGCSE 2024, 2025
• Student Volunteer for ESEC/FSE 2022

Selected Awards

• NUS Dean's Graduate Research Excellence Award 2024
• NUS Research Incentive Award 2023
• NUS Research Achievement Award 2023
• NUS Research Scholarship 2019 - 2024
• SUSTech Outstanding Graduate Student Award 2019
• SUSTech Outstanding Graduate Thesis Award 2019
• ACM SIGSOFT CAPS and Travel Grant 2019

Teaching Experience

• CS2040S Data Structures and Algorithms Spring 2024 Teaching Assistant
• CS3213 Foundations of Software Engineering Spring 2023 Head Teaching Assistant
• CS3213 Foundations of Software Engineering Spring 2022 Head Teaching Assistant
• CS4211 Formal Method for Software Engineering Fall 2020 Teaching Assistant