Yiling Lou

Yiling Lou is an incoming Assistant Professor at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (starting Spring 2026), currently serving as a Pre-tenure Associate Professor at Fudan University. Previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue University under Prof. Lin Tan, Dr. Lou holds a Ph.D. and B.S. in Computer Science from Peking University supervised by Prof. Lu Zhang and Prof. Dan Hao.

Research interests span Software Engineering synergized with Artificial Intelligence and Programming Languages, specifically focusing on LLM4Code, Agent&SE, Vulnerability Detection, and Software Testing/Debugging. Current projects include AgentIssue-Bench for agent system maintenance and INFERROI for enhancing static analysis with LLMs.

Research trends show increasing integration of LLMs with traditional SE techniques, particularly in code generation (ClassEval, CodeGen4Libs), debugging (interactive runtime comparison), and vulnerability detection. Recent work emphasizes practical applications in agent systems and resource leak detection.

• ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award (ESEC/FSE 2023)
• IEEE TCSE Distinguished Paper Award (ICSME 2021)

Advises a large research group including 7 Ph.D. and 8 MS students at Fudan University, actively recruiting for UIUC starting Fall 2026. Leads the LLM4Code workshop series and serves on numerous program committees including ICSE, ASE, and FSE. Currently organizing research on Code Agents, Code LLMs, and AI&Security with strong industry relevance.

Coordinates the Siebel School research group at UIUC focusing on the intersection of AI and Software Engineering, with particular emphasis on developing robust agent systems for code maintenance and security applications.