Lu Liu (刘璐)
PhD Candidate in Computer Science and Engineering
the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
About Me
I am a final-year PhD candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), supervised by Prof. Shing-Chi Cheung and co-supervised by Prof. Yepang Liu (from SUSTech). Prior to joining HKUST, I received my B.E. in Computer Science from Wuhan University.
My research focuses on enhancing the security and reliability of decentralized systems. To achieve this, I leverage techniques at the intersection of AI and Software Engineering (AI4SE), focusing on quality assurance for blockchain applications and the automated detection of smart contract vulnerabilities. My work applies methods from quality/quantitative analysis, program analysis, and large language model to make the blockchain ecosystem safer.
I am actively on the 2025-2026 job market for an Industry Research Scientist position in AI4SE, blockchain security, AI for blockchain and smart contract analysis. Please feel free to review my CV and get in touch.
Research
My research interests include:
- AI for Software Engineering (AI4SE): Applying AI techniques to improve software engineering practices.
- Smart Contract Security: Detecting vulnerabilities in blockchain-based smart contracts.
- Quality Assurance: Ensuring the reliability and security of blockchain-related applications.
Research Experience
Detecting Price Manipulation Vulnerabilities in DeFi Smart Contracts
Developed PMDetector, a hybrid framework that integrates static taint analysis with Large Language Model (LLM) reasoning for detecting price manipulation vulnerabilities in DeFi smart contracts.
Introduced a formal attack model to guide the detection pipeline, enabling precise analysis of complex economic logic and defense mechanisms within smart contracts.
A research paper has been submitted to a top-tier venue and is currently under review.
CBDC Unified Ledge White Paper Project
Assisted with writing the white paper for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Unified Ledger.
Participated in project discussions and reviewed technical implementations to provide suggestions for the CBDC system development.
Attack Mining and Detecting Front-Running Vulnerabilities in Smart Contracts
Proposed an automated vulnerability localization approach to localize code snippets in smart contracts that enable front-running attacks and created a real-world attacks benchmark.
Formalized the definition of exploitable front-running vulnerabilities and proposed a static analyzer Nyx for detecting them.
Published 2 co-authored papers in top-tier (CORE A*) venues.
Characterizing and Evaluating Transaction-reverting Faults in Smart Contracts
Examined the prevalence and security impacts of transaction-reverting statements and faults in Ethereum smart contracts.
Evaluated state-of-the-art smart contract security testing tools to identify their limitations.
Published 2 first-author papers in top-tier (CORE A*) venues.
Publications
Towards Detecting Price Manipulation Vulnerabilities in DeFi Ecosystems
Submitted to a top-tier venue
On State Reverting in Solidity Smart Contracts: Developer Practices, Fault Categorization, and Tool Evaluation
Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), 2024
Nyx: Detecting Exploitable Front-Running Vulnerabilities in Smart Contracts
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), 2023
Combatting Front-Running in Smart Contracts: Attack Mining, Benchmark Construction and Vulnerability Detector Evaluation
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2023
Curriculum Vitae
You can download my CV here.
Education
Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering
the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong
B.E. in Computer Science
Wuhan University, Wuhan
Teaching Experience
Teaching Assistant
HKUST
Course: COMP 3111 Software Engineering
Teaching Assistant
HKUST
Course: COMP 4431 Multimedia Computing
Service
Conference and Journal Reviewer
- ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) 2024
- International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) ARTIFACT 2024
- ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) ARTIFACT 2025