Lizhi Liao
Assistant Professor at MUN
St. John's, NL, Canada
Hi there! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). Prior to joining MUN, I received my Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, under the supervision of Dr. Weiyi Shang.
My general research area is Software Engineering. In particular, my main research focuses on improving (AI) software performance and developing fast and efficient software in fast-paced development and release practices (e.g., DevOps). My detailed research interests include software performance engineering, web GUI testing, and AI software system quality.
I am currently seeking highly self-motivated Ph.D. and Master's students (fully funded) to work with me. If you are interested, please submit your application here.
Publications
Lizhi Liao, Simon Eismann, Heng Li, Cor-Paul Bezemer, Diego Elias Costa, André van Hoorn, and Weiyi Shang.
"Early Detection of Performance Regressions by Bridging Local Performance Data and Architectural Models."
The 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025).
LINK
PDF
🏆 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award
Haonan Zhang, Lizhi Liao, Zishuo Ding, Weiyi Shang, Nidhi Narula, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma, and Sarah Sajedi. "Towards a Robust Waiting Strategy for Web GUI Testing for an Industrial Software System." The 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2024), Industry Track. LINK PDF
Yuanjie Xia, Lizhi Liao, Jinfu Chen, Heng Li, and Weiyi Shang. "Reducing the Length of Field-Replay Based Load Testing." IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE 2024). LINK PDF
Lizhi Liao, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang, Catalin Sporea, Andrei Toma, and Sarah Sajedi. "Adapting Performance Analytic Techniques in a Real-World Database-Centric System: An Industrial Experience Report." The 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2023), Industry Track. LINK PDF
Lizhi Liao. "Addressing Performance Regressions in DevOps: Can We Escape from System Performance Testing?" The 45th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023), Doctoral Symposium. LINK PDF
Simon Eismann, Diego Elias Costa, Lizhi Liao, Cor-Paul Bezemer, Weiyi Shang, André van Hoorn, and Samuel Kounev. "A Case Study on the Stability of Performance Tests for Serverless Applications." Journal of Systems and Software (JSS 2022). LINK PDF
Lizhi Liao, Heng Li, Weiyi Shang, and Lei Ma. "An Empirical Study of the Impact of Hyperparameter Tuning and Model Optimization on the Performance Properties of Deep Neural Networks." ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM 2022). LINK PDF
Teaching
Instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland
AI 6001: Topics in Artificial Intelligence (2025 Winter)
AI 6002: Capstone for Artificial Intelligence (2024 Fall)
Guest Lecturer at the University of Waterloo
SE 464: Software Design and Architectures (2024 Fall)
Topic: Software Architectural Models
ECE 453: Software Testing, Quality Assurance, and Maintenance (2024 Winter)
Topic: Software Load Testing
Teaching Assistant at the University of Waterloo
ECE 453: Software Testing, Quality Assurance, and Maintenance (2024 Winter)
Teaching Assistant at Concordia University
SOEN 6591: Software Mining and Analysis (2021 Winter)
SOEN 345: Software Testing, Verification, and Quality Assurance (2020 Winter)
SOEN 390: Software Engineering Team Design Project (2019 Winter)
SOEN 6841: Software Project Management (2018 Fall)
SOEN 387: Web-based Enterprise Application Design (2018 Fall)
SOEN 384: Software Management, Measurement, and Quality Control (2018 Fall)
About
Academic Services
-
Conference/Workshop Organization
-
Program Committee Member
The IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), Research Track, 2025
The IEEE International Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC), Symposium on Software Engineering Technologies & Applications (SETA) Track, 2025
The IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER), Research Papers Track, 2025
The ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA), Artifact Evaluation Track, 2023, 2024, 2025
The ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), Data Challenge Track, 2023, 2024
The ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), Artifact Evaluation Track, 2022, 2023
The International Workshop on Load Testing and Benchmarking of Software Systems (LTB), 2022, 2023
-
Journal Reviewer
-
Research Member
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) Research Group - DevOps Performance Working Group, Secretary, Sept. 2024 - Present
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) Research Group, Primary Representative, June 2020 - Present
Industrial Experiences
Research Intern (May 2019 – Aug. 2024)
ERA Environmental Management Solutions, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Software Developer Intern (Jan. 2019 - May 2019)
Nakisa, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Presentation
The 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025), Ottawa, Canada. Early Detection of Performance Regressions by Bridging Local Performance Data and Architectural Models.
Concordia University Research Workshops & Seminars (2025), Montréal, Canada. Addressing Software Performance Regressions in DevOps.
University of Waterloo Research Seminar Series (2024), Waterloo, Canada. Addressing Performance Regressions in DevOps: Can We Escape from System Performance Testing?
Consortium for Software Engineering Research (CSER 2024), Kingston, Canada. An Empirical Study of the Impact of Hyperparameter Tuning and Model Optimization on the Performance Properties of Deep Neural Networks.
Memorial University of Newfoundland Research Seminar (2024), St. John's, Canada. Addressing Software Performance Regressions in Production.
SPEC DevOps Performance Research Group Monthly Meeting (2024), Waterloo, Canada. Bridging Local Performance Testing and Architectural Models: A Performance Regression Detection Approach.
The 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2023), San Francisco, United States. Adapting Performance Analytic Techniques in a Real-World Database-Centric System: An Industrial Experience Report.
University of Waterloo Research Seminar Series (2023), Waterloo, Canada. Adapting Performance Analytic Techniques in a Real-World Database-Centric System: An Industrial Experience Report.
Concordia University Research Workshops & Seminars (2023), Montréal, Canada. Addressing Performance Regressions in DevOps: Can We Escape from System Performance Testing?
The 45th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023), Melbourne, Australia. An Empirical Study of the Impact of Hyperparameter Tuning and Model Optimization on the Performance Properties of Deep Neural Networks.
The 45th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering Doctoral Symposium (ICSE-DS 2023), Melbourne, Australia. Addressing Performance Regressions in DevOps: Can We Escape from System Performance Testing?
The 30th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2022), Singapore. Locating Performance Regression Root Causes in the Field Operations of Web-based Systems: An Experience Report.
SPEC DevOps Performance Research Group Monthly Meeting (2022), Montréal, Canada. An Empirical Study of the Impact of Hyperparameter Tuning and Model Optimization on the Performance Properties of Deep Neural Networks.
The Software Engineering for Machine Learning Applications International Symposium (SEMLA 2022), Montréal, Canada. An Empirical Study of the Impact of Hyperparameter Tuning and Model Optimization on the Performance Properties of Deep Neural Networks.
SPEC DevOps Performance Research Group Monthly Meeting (2022), Montréal, Canada. Locating Performance Regression Root Causes in the Field Operations of Web-based Systems: An Experience Report.
The 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2021), Madrid, Spain. Using Black-Box Performance Models to Detect Performance Regressions under Varying Workloads: An Empirical Study.
SPEC DevOps Performance Research Group Monthly Meeting (2021), Montréal, Canada. Using Black-Box Performance Models to Detect Performance Regressions under Varying Workloads: An Empirical Study.
Consortium for Software Engineering Research (CSER 2019), Markham, Canada. Using Black-Box Performance Models to Detect Performance Regressions under Varying Workloads: An Empirical Study.
Awards
ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award for "Early Detection of Performance Regressions by Bridging Local Performance Data and Architectural Models" at ICSE 2025, Ottawa, Canada
International Doctoral Student Award, University of Waterloo, 2023, 2024
University of Waterloo Graduate Scholarship, University of Waterloo, 2024
Electrical & Computer Engineering International Doctoral Student Award, University of Waterloo, 2023, 2024
Graduate Student Research Dissemination Award, University of Waterloo, 2023
ACM SIGSOFT CAPS Travel Award, ACM SIGSOFT, 2021, 2022, 2023
Concordia University Conference and Exposition Award, Concordia University, 2022, 2023
Concordia GSA Conference Award, Concordia University, 2022, 2023
Concordia International Tuition Award of Excellence, Concordia University, 2019
Hobbies
I love long-distance road trip, snowboarding and playing the guitar.
Contact
You can reach me via:
E-mail: lizhi {DOTs} liao {ATs} mun {DOTs} ca
Location: EN 2011, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada, A1C 5S7