Lu Xiao

Lu Xiao is an Associate Professor in the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on software engineering, particularly software architecture, software maintenance, software testing, and software quality. She has received multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, including a CAREER award, and has published in top venues like ICSE, ESEM, FSE, and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

Dr. Xiao's educational background includes:

• PhD in Computer Science from Drexel University (2016)
• BE in Network Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (2009)

Her research centers around modeling and analyzing software architecture to address stakeholder concerns. She investigates how software architecture impacts developer communication and is constructing test-aware architecture models to support testing-related decision making. Her work bridges software architecture with practical concerns of maintenance, quality, and performance, with increasing focus on AI-empowered approaches to architecture-centric performance optimization.

Dr. Xiao's recent publications demonstrate a strong trajectory toward understanding architectural impacts on performance issues, technical debt, and testing practices. Her work increasingly incorporates empirical methods, automated analysis frameworks, and educational initiatives to cultivate performance awareness among software engineers.

Scientific recognition includes:

• First place prize at the ACM Student Research Competition in 2015

Dr. Xiao has secured over $1.6 million in research funding, primarily from the National Science Foundation. Her current projects include the CAREER award on AI-Empowered Architecture-Centric Framework for Systematic Software Performance Optimization and Cultivating Performance-Aware Software Engineers. She serves on program committees for major software engineering conferences and reviews for prestigious journals including IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

She leads research initiatives focused on creating infrastructure for software architecture analysis and maintenance, with practical applications in performance optimization, testing, and educational tools like the eFish'nSea Unity game set for learning performance issues.