Yan Cai

Professor Yan Cai is a researcher and PhD supervisor at the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a focus on software testing, program security, and concurrency bugs. He holds a PhD from City University of Hong Kong and a BEng from Shandong University. His work spans multiple prestigious venues including ICSE, ASE, FSE, and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

Dr. Cai's educational background includes a PhD from City University of Hong Kong and a Bachelor of Engineering from Shandong University. His research interests primarily focus on software testing (particularly AI-based approaches), intelligent software systems analysis and testing, software security, and RISC-V software. He has made significant contributions to the field of concurrency bug detection and prediction.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward applying AI techniques to software testing problems while maintaining rigorous theoretical foundations in concurrency analysis. His work bridges traditional program analysis with modern machine learning approaches, with applications ranging from autonomous driving systems to smart contract security. The research shows increasing focus on practical applications of theoretical concurrency models to real-world software systems.

• CCF NASAC-Neusoft Youth Software Innovation Award (2018)
• Excellent Advisor Award (2018)
• Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program (2017)
• Excellent Young AE Award (2016)
• Outstanding Reviewer (top 10%) for KDD 2025

Professor Cai has advised multiple PhD and Master's students including Biyun Zhu, Haicheng Li, Ruijie Meng, and Hao Yun. He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Systems and Software and has been a program committee member for numerous top conferences including AAAI, ICSE, ASE, and FSE. His research has been supported through various grants, including the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program from the China Association for Science and Technology and the China Computer Federation.