Bowen Xu – Publications

[Google Scholar] [ORCiD]

Book Chapter

[B1] Yang Zhou, Bowen Xu, David Lo. Supporting Collateral Evolution in Software Ecosystems of the book titled Software Ecosystems: Tooling and Analytics. Link

Conference Main/Technical/Research-track Full Papers

[C31] Quoc Hung Le, Thanh Le-Cong, Bach Le, Bowen Xu. Optimizing Spectral Signature in Code Backdoor Detection. 42nd IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2026).
[C30] Yinan Wu, Ze Shi Li, Kathryn Thomasset Stolee, Bowen Xu. How Do Developers Interact with AI? An Exploratory Study on Modeling Developer Programming Behavior. The ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2026).
[C29] Pankaj Manoharlal Thakur, Kyle Thomson, Wesley Assunção, Bowen Xu. Backporting in Robot Operating System: Identifying Commit Purpose and Propagation Need with Large Language Models. The 3rd ACM international conference on AI Foundation Models and Software Engineering (FORGE 2026).
[C28] Jie Gao, Yue Xue, Xiaofei Xie, SoeMin Thant, Erika Lee, Bowen Xu. Understanding Codebase like a Professional! Human-AI Collaboration for Code Comprehension. The 34st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2026). Link
[C27] Hua Yang, Alejandro Velasco, Thanh Le-Cong, Md Nazmul Haque, Bowen Xu, Denys Poshyvanyk. How Do Semantically Equivalent Code Transformations Impact Membership Inference on LLMs for Code?. The 46th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2026). Link
[C26] Md Nazmul Haque, Hua Yang, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu. How Quantization Impacts Privacy Risk on LLMs for Code?. 2nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on AI-powered Software (AIware 2025). Link
[C25] Chengran Yang, Jiakun Liu, Bowen Xu, Christoph Treude, Yunbo Lyu, Junda He, Ming Li, David Lo. APIDocBooster: An Extract-Then-Abstract Framework Leveraging Large Language Models for Augmenting API Documentation. 41th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2025). Link
[C24] Saima Afrin, Antonio Mastropaolo, Bowen Xu. Quantization Is Not a Dealbreaker: Empirical Insights from Large Code Models. 41th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2025). Link
[C23] Ummay Kulsum, Haotian Zhu, Bowen Xu, Marcelo d'Amorim. A Case Study of LLM for Automated Vulnerability Repair: Assessing Impact of Reasoning and Patch Validation Feedback. 1st ACM International Conference on AI-powered Software (AIware 2024). Link
[C22] Chen Gong, Zhou Yang, Yunpeng Bai, Junda He, Jieke Shi, Kecen Li, Arunesh Sinha, Bowen Xu, Xinwen Hou, David Lo, Tianhao Wang. BAFFLE: Backdoor Attack in Offline Reinforcement Learning Datasets. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P 2024). Link
[C21] Xin Zhou, Kisub Kim, Bowen Xu, DongGyun Han, David Lo. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Better Automatic Vulnerability Repair by Broadening Input Ranges and Sources. The 46th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2024). Link
[C20] Junda He, Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Chengran Yang, Kisub Kim, Bowen Xu, Xin Zhou, David Lo. Curiosity-Driven Testing for Sequential Decision-Making Process. The 46th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2024).
[C18] Xin Zhou, Kisub Kim, Bowen Xu, Jiakun Liu, DongGyun Han, David Lo. The Devil is in the Tails: An Exploratory Study on Long-tailed. 39th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ASE 2023).
[C17] Xin Zhou, Bowen Xu, Donggyun Han, Zhou Yang, Junda He and David Lo. Self-Supervised Code Change Representation Learning. 39th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2023). Link
[C16] Xin Zhou, Kisub Kim, Bowen Xu, DongGyun Han, Junda He, David Lo. Generation-based Code Review Automation: How Far Are We?. The 31st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2023).
[C15] Chen Gong, Zhou Yang, Yunpeng Bai, Jieke Shi, Arunesh Sinha, Bowen Xu, David Lo, Xinwen Hou, Guoliang Fan. Curiosity-Driven and Victim-Aware Adversarial Policies. The Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). Link
[C14] Chengran Yang, Bowen Xu, Ferdian Thung, Yucen Shi, Ting Zhang, Zhou Yang, Xin Zhou, Jieke Shi, Junda He, DongGyun Han, David Lo. Answer Summarization for Technical Queries: Benchmark and New Approach. The 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. Link
[C13] Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Hong Jin Kang, David Lo. Compressing Pre-trained Models of Code into 3 MB. The 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. Link
[C12] Yucen Shi, Ying Yin, Zhengkui Wang, David Lo, Tao Zhang, Xin Xia, Yuhai Zhao, Bowen Xu. How to Better Utilize Code Graphs in Semantic Code Search?. The 30th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2022). Link
[C11] Junda He, Bowen Xu, Zhou Yang, DongGyun Han, Chengran Yang and David Lo. PTM4Tag: Sharpening Tag Recommendation of Stack Overflow with Pre-trained Models. 30th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2022). Link Code
[C10] Chengran Yang, Bowen Xu, Junaed Younus Khan, Gias Uddin, Donggyun Han, Zhou Yang and David Lo. Aspect-Based API Review Classification: How Far Can Pre-Trained Transformer Model Go?. 29th IEEE International Conference onSoftware Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER 2022). Link Code
[C9] Ting Zhang, Bowen Xu, Ferdian Thung, Stefanus Agus Haryono, David Lo, Lingxiao Jiang. Sentiment Analysis for Software Engineering: How Far Can Pre-trained Transformer Models Go?. 36th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2020). Link Code
[C8] Heng-Yi Li, Shu-Ting Shi, Ferdian Thung, Xuan Huo, Bowen Xu, Ming Li, and David Lo. DeepReview: Automatic Code Review using Deep Multi-Instance Learning. The 23rd Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD 2019). Link
[C7] Bowen Xu, Amirreza Shirani, David Lo and Mohammad Amin Alipour. Prediction of Relatedness in Stack Overflow: Deep Learning vs. SVM - A Reproducibility Study. 12th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2018). Link Slide Code
[C6] Bowen Xu, Zhenchang Xing, Xin Xia, David Lo. AnswerBot - Automated Generation of Answer Summary to Developers' Technical Questions. 32nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2017). Link Code Slide Poster
[C5] Bowen Xu, Deheng Ye, Zhenchang Xing, Xin Xia, Guibin Chen, Shanping Li. Predicting Semantically Linkable Knowledge in Developer Online Forums via Convolutional Neural Network. 31st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2016). Link Code
[C4] Guibin Chen, Chunyang Chen, Zhenchang Xing, Bowen Xu. Learning a Dual-Language Vector Space for Domain-Specific Cross-Lingual Question Retrieval. 31st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2016). Link
[C3] Bowen Xu, Zhenchang Xing, Xin Xia, David Lo, Qingye Wang, Shanping Li. Domain-Specific Cross-Language Relevant Question Retrieval. 13th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2016). Link
[C2] Bowen Xu, David Lo, Xin Xia, Ashish Sureka, Shanping Li. EFSPredictor: Predicting Configuration Bugs With Ensemble Feature Selection. 22nd Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC 2015). Link
[C1] Yun Zhang, David Lo, Xin Xia, Bowen Xu, Jianling Sun, Shanping Li. Combining Software Metrics and Text Features for Vulnerable File Prediction. 20th International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS 2015). Link

Journal Papers

[J19] Hua Yang, Alejandro Velasco, Sen Fang, Bowen Xu, Denys Poshyvanyk. A Causal Perspective on the Role of Training Dynamics for Interpreting Privacy Risks in Code Models. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2026.
[J18] Sen Fang, Weiyuan Ding, Mengshi Zhang, Zihao Chen, Bowen Xu. EVALOOP: A Self-Consistency Framework for Assessing Large Language Model Robustness in Programming. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2026.
[J17] Saima Afrin, Alessandro Midolo, Camilo Escobar-Velásquez, Mario Linares-Vásquez, Weiyuan Ding, Bowen Xu, Massimiliano Di Penta, Antonio Mastropaolo. Large Language Models for Code Generation from Multilingual Prompts: A Curated Benchmark and a Study on Code Quality. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2026.
[J16] Nowshin Nawar Arony, Ze Shi Li, Daniela Damian, Bowen Xu. Unveiling Inclusiveness-Related User Feedback in Mobile Applications. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2026.
[J15] Zhensu Sun, Haotian Zhu, Bowen Xu, Xiaoning Du, Li Li, David Lo. Healer: Adaptive Self-Healing of Software Systems. Communications of the ACM (CACM). 2026.
[J14] Mohammad Sadegh Sheikhaei, Yuan Tian, Shaowei Wang, Bowen Xu. A Large-Scale Empirical Evaluation of LLMs for Automated Self-Admitted Technical Debt Repayment. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2026.
[J13] Bo Wang, Chong Chen, Junjie Chen, Bowen Xu, Chen Ye, Youfang Lin, Guoliang Dong, Jun Sun. A Comprehensive Study of OOP-Related Bugs in C++ Compilers. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). 2025.
[J12] Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Junda He, Bowen Xu, Dongsun Kim, DongGyun Han, David Lo. Finding Safety Violations of AI-Enabled Control Systems through the Lens of Synthesized Proxy Programs. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2025.
[J11] Junda He, Bowen Xu, Zhou Yang, DongGyun Han, Chengran Yang, Jiakun Liu, Zhipeng Zhao, David Lo. PTM4Tag+: Tag recommendation of stack overflow posts with pre-trained models. Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE). 2024.
[J10] Zhou Yang, Jieke Shi, Hilmi Asyrofi, Bowen Xu, Xin Zhou, DongGyun Han, David Lo. Prioritizing Speech Test Cases. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2024.
[J9] Mohammad Sadegh Sheikhaei, Yuan Tian, Shaowei Wang, Bowen Xu. An empirical study on the effectiveness of large language models for SATD identification and classification. Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE). 2024.
[J8] Xin Zhou, Bowen Xu, Kisub Kim, DongGyun Han, Nguyen Huu Hung, Thanh Le-Cong, Junda He, Bach Le, and David Lo. Leveraging Large Language Model for Automatic Patch Correctness Assessment. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). 2024.
[J7] Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Jie M. Zhang, Hong Jin Kang, Jieke Shi, Junda He, David Lo. Stealthy Backdoor Attack for Code Models. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). 2024.
[J6] Junda He, Xin Zhou, Bowen Xu, Ting Zhang, Kisub Kim, Zhou Yang, Ferdian Thung, Ivana Irsan, David Lo. Representation Learning for Stack Overflow Posts: How Far are We?. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2023. Link
[J5] Truong Giang Nguyen, Thanh Le-Cong, Hong Jin Kang, Ratnadira Widyasari, Chengran Yang, Zhipeng Zhao, Bowen Xu, Jiayuan Zhou, Xin Xia, Ahmed Hassan, Xuan-Bach Le, David Lo, Multi-Granularity Detector for Vulnerability Fixes. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). 2023. Link
[J4] Ting Zhang, DongGyun Han, Venkatesh Vinayakarao, Ivana Irsan, Bowen Xu, Ferdian Thung, David Lo, Lingxiao Jiang. Duplicate Bug Report Detection: How Far Are We?. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 2023. Link
[J3] Bowen Xu, Thong Hoang, Abhishek Sharma, Chengran Yang, Xin Xia, and David Lo. Post2Vec: Learning Distributed Representations of Stack Overflow Posts. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). Link
[J2] Bowen Xu, Le An, Ferdian Thung, Foutse Khomh, David Lo. Why Reinventing the Wheels? An Empirical Study on Library Reuse and Re-implementation. Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE). Link
[J1] Bowen Xu, Zhenchang Xing, Xin Xia, David Lo, Shanping Li. Domain-Specific Cross-Language Relevant Question Retrieval. Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE). PREPRINT

Tool Demo Papers

[T3] Chengran Yang, Bowen Xu, Jiakun Liu, David Lo. TECHSUMBOT: A Stack Overflow Answer Summarization Tool for Technical Query. The 45th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023). Accepted as a tool demo paper. Link Video Demo
[T2] Liang Cai, Haoye Wang, Bowen Xu, Qiao Huang, Xin Xia, David Lo, Zhenchang Xing. AnswerBot: An Answer Summary Generation Tool Based on Stack Overflow. The 27th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2019). Accepted as a tool demo paper. Link Video Code
[T1] Bowen Xu, Zhenchang Xing, Xin Xia, David Lo Xuan-Bach D. Le. XSearch: A DomainSpecific Cross-Language Relevant Question Retrieval Tool. 11th joint meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2017). Accepted as a tool demo paper. Link Video

Special-track Full Papers

[S4] Yinan Wu, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Bo Wang, Bach Le and David Lo. Learning From the Best: What Makes Popular Hugging Face Models? A Registered Report. 41th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2025). Accepted by Registered Reports-track. Link
[S3] Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Hong Jin Kang, Bowen Xu, Junda He, David Lo. Greening Large Language Models of Code. The 46th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2024). Accepted as a Software Engineering in Society-track paper.
[S2] Bowen Xu, Thanh-Dat Nguyen, Thanh Le-Cong, Thong Hoang, Jiakun Liu, Kisub Kim, Chen Gong, Changan Niu, Chenyu Wang, Bach Le, David Lo. Are We Ready to Embrace Generative AI for Software Q&A?. 39th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ASE 2023). Accepted as a New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER)-track Paper. Link
[S1] Jieke Shi, Zhou Yang, Junda He, Bowen Xu and David Lo. Can Identifier Splitting Improve Open-Vocabulary Language Model of Code?. 29th IEEE International Conference onSoftware Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER 2022). Accepted as a Early Research Achievement (ERA)-track Paper. Link Code

Workshop Papers

[W2] Aftab Hussain, Md Rafiqul Islam Rabin, Bowen Xu, David Lo, Amin Alipour. A Study of Variable-Role-based Feature Enrichment in Neural Models of Code ICSE 2023 The 1st International Workshop on Interpretability and Robustness in Neural Software Engineering (ICSE-InteNSE).
[W1] Amirreza Shirani, Bowen Xu, David Lo, Thamar Solorio and Mohammad Amin Alipour. Question Relatedness on Stack Overflow: The Task, Dataset, and Corpus-inspired Model. AAAI 2019 Reasoning and Complex QA Workshop (AAAI-RCQA).