Haipeng Cai

Haipeng Cai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor (2016–2022) and tenured Associate Professor (2022–2024) at Washington State University. His research focuses on software engineering and security, particularly program analysis, machine learning for security applications, and multilingual software systems. He holds a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Notre Dame (2015).

Education: PhD in Computer Science & Engineering (University of Notre Dame, 2015).

Research interests include:

• Software security and reliability of distributed systems
• Machine learning-driven vulnerability detection and patching
• Analysis of multilingual software and cross-language bugs
• Tools like VGX (vulnerability data generation), PyRTFuzz (Python runtime fuzzing), and PolyFuzz (multi-language system fuzzing)

Notable awards include the 2025 TOSEM Outstanding Paper Award for malware detection sustainability, multiple Distinguished Reviewer Awards, and the 2022 Junior Faculty Research Award. His work has led to over 50 publications, with a focus on practical security solutions.

Advising: Mentor to students like Wen (PhD 2024, now at Utah State), Xiaoqin (first PhD graduate from his lab), and current advisees Haoran, Jiawei, and Yu. Projects include grants from NSF, ONR, and the Open Technology Fund.

Key contributions include tools like VulGen (vulnerability dataset generation) and FlowDist (distributed system analysis), and labs focused on AI-driven security and multilingual software engineering.