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Team ASTRO

Team ASTRO

We are committed to advancing research in AI security by systematically exploring adversarial capabilities in code generation models. Our goal is to develop novel techniques and establish new benchmarks to uncover vulnerabilities, ensuring the safety and reliability of LLM-assisted software development systems.

By University of Texas at Dallas
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Zexin Xu - Team leader

Zexin Xu, holding BS and MS degrees from Ohio State University, specializes in LLM security and safety. He worked on embodied agents in the OSU NLP Group. He also contributed to CBT therapy chatbot with UCI, and now researches LLM security with Dr. Wei Yang at UT Dallas.

Ravishka Rathnasuriya

Ravishka Rathnasuriya is a PhD student in computer science at UT Dallas, working with Dr. Wei Yang. After earning his bachelor's from Midwestern State University, he focuses on AI for Software Engineering, including program adaptation for LLMs, efficiency robustness, and bug detection in CUDA programs.

Tingxi Li

Tingxi Li, a first-year PhD student at UT Dallas, focuses on AI security and software testing. He works on developing robust deep learning algorithms and understanding AI decision-making processes, with particular emphasis on attack and defense mechanisms in real-world AI systems.

Zihe Song

Zihe Song is a PhD student at UT Dallas under the supervision of Dr. Wei Yang, researches software testing with a focus on Android testing. Her work spans UI navigation, record & replay tools and game compatibility testing, currently exploring large language models to redefine mobile capabilities.

Jun Ren

Jun Ren is a senior undergraduate student in Computer Science at UT Dallas, focusing on AI and software engineering. His experience includes LLM research projects and collaboration with Peking University on mobile testing and security. He actively applies his AI and security knowledge to real-world challenges.

Krishan Chandra Bansal

Krishan Bansal is a Computer Engineering Master's student at the University of Texas at Dallas. His primary focus is applied machine learning. His research and work has primarily involved the use of natural language processing and computer vision techniques across various domains.

Ruosen Li

Ruosen Li is a PhD student majoring in computer science at the University of Texas at Dallas, advised by Dr. Xinya Du. He received his master degree of Data Analytics Engineering from Northeastern University in 2020 and bachelor degree of Computer Science from Beijing Jiaotong University in 2017. His study field is natural language processing. More specifically, his interests are in Question Answering, Large Language Model (LLM), and Interactive Reasoning.

Teerth Patel

Teerth Patel is a computer science undergrad student at University of Texas at Dallas concurrently pursuing a masters in Intelligent Systems. He has conducted research with the evaluation of Large Language Models (LLM), application of LLMs to automated research, and event extraction tasks.

Wei Yang - Faculty advisor

Dr. Wei Yang, Associate Professor at UT Dallas and NSF CAREER Award recipient, specializes in software engineering and security. With a PhD from UIUC, he focuses on Code Models, LLM security, and intelligent software testing. His innovative research has earned recognition, including an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award.

Xinya Du - Faculty advisor

Dr. Xinya Du, Assistant Professor at UT Dallas and NSF CAREER Award recipient, specializes in NLP and large language models. With a PhD from Cornell and experience at Microsoft, Google, and AI2, he focuses on building secure and faithful AI systems. His influential research has earned recognition including the 2024 Amazon Research Award.

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University of Texas at Dallas

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