Academic Qualification

Ph.D. in Computer Science, The University of Texas, Arlington, USA

M.S. in Software Engineering, The University of Texas, Arlington, USA

B.S. in Computer Science, Jilin University, China

Teaching Area

EIE 331 — Embedded Systems Design (Undergraduate; Fall 2024, 2025)

CS/EIE/SE 471 — Computer and Network Security (Undergraduate; Spring 2025, 2026)

SE 252 — Software Project Management (Undergraduate; Spring 2025, 2026)

MIIE01 — Advanced Topics in Information Technology (Master’s; Fall 2025)

DNCZ04 — Cybersecurity (Doctoral/PhD; Spring 2025, 2026)

Research Interests

Agentic Systems for Software Security: Autonomous Analysis, Testing, and Hardening

Language-Based Security: Automated Program Analysis and Formal Methods

Trustworthy Foundation Models: Security, Privacy, and Alignment

Embodied AI: Safe Motion Planning and Adaptive Robotic Control

AI-Driven Software Comprehension and Binary Analysis

Professional Services

Vice Chair, IEEE Computer Society Macau Chapter (2025–Present)

Secretary, Research Committee, School of Computer Science and Engineering, MUST (2024–Present)

Panel Chair, CCF 19th International Conference on Service Science (2026)

Local Chair, IEEE 32nd Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (2025)

Reviewing (Journals)

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (2025–Present)

IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society (2025–Present)

Journal of Computer Languages (2025–Present)

Computers & Electrical Engineering (Elsevier) (2024–Present)

Journal of Systems & Software (2024–Present)

IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (2022–Present)

Computers & Security (Elsevier) (2021–Present)

Reviewing(Conferences)

ACM CCS (2019–2020)

IEEE/ACM ASE (2020)

Working Experience

Sep. 2024 ~ present, Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Innovation Engineering, MUST

Sep. 2023 ~ Aug. 2024, Research Associate, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University

Sep. 2017 ~ Aug. 2023, Graduate Research Assistant/Teaching Assistant, University of Texas, Arlington

Academic Publication (selected)

1.          In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE). Trondheim, Norway, 2025. (CCF-A, Top-tier Conference)

        [FSE ’25] Revisiting Optimization-Resilience Claims in Binary Diffing Tools: Insights from LLVM         Peephole Optimization Analysis

        Xiaolei Ren, Mengfei Ren, Yu Lei, Jiang Ming

2.          In ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice (DTRAP). 2023. (JCR Q1)

        [DTRAP] Security analysis of ZigBee protocol implementation via device-agnostic fuzzing

        Mengfei Ren, Xiaolei Ren, Huadong Feng, Jiang Ming, and Yu Lei.

3.          In Proceedings of the 2023 European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS). Hague, Netherlands, 2023. (CCF-B)

        [ESORICS ’23] Intelligent Zigbee Protocol Fuzzing via Constraint-Field Dependency Inference

        Meng Ren, Haotian Zhang, Xiaolei Ren, Jiang Ming, and Yu Lei

4.          In Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST), Dublin, Ireland, 2023.

        [ICST ’23] MagicMirror: Towards High-Coverage Fuzzing of Smart Contracts

        Huadong Feng, Xiaolei Ren, Qiping Wei, Yu Lei, Raghu Kacker, Richard Kuhn, and Dimitris Simos

5.          In the IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence (TETCI), 2022. (JCR Q1)

        [TETCI] Motion Planning and Cooperative Manipulation for Mobile Robots with Dual Arms

        Fuchun Sun, Yang Chen, Yangyang Wu, Linxiang Li, and Xiaolei Ren

6.          In Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), 2021. (CCF-A, Top-tier Conference)

        [PLDI ‘21] Unleashing the Hidden Power of Compiler Optimization on Binary Code Difference

        Xiaolei Ren, Michael Ho, Jiang Ming, Yu Lei, and Li Li

7.          In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec), 2021.

        [WiSec ‘21] Z-Fuzzer: device-agnostic fuzzing of Zigbee protocol implementation

        Mengfei Ren, Xiaolei Ren, Huadong Feng, Jiang Ming, and Yu Lei

        Zero-day Vulnerabilities Detected: CVE-2020-27890, CVE-2020-27891, CVE-2020-27892

Award

ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Paper Award (ACM PLDI 2021)

Research Grants

PI, Research Project (0011/2025/ITP1) supported by the FDCT, 2025-2027

PI, Research Project (0134/2024/RIB2) supported by the FDCT, 2025-2027

PI, Research Project supported by the Faculty Research Grants of MUST, 2025-2026

Professional Society Membership

Member, CCF/ACM/IEEE