Research Areas

ISSTA welcomes submissions addressing topics across the full spectrum of software analysis. Topics of interest include the following and are grouped into the following eight research areas. Please note that these topics are by no means exhaustive. Each submission will need to indicate one primary and optionally a secondary area. Program chairs will ultimately assign a paper to an area chair (and at least three reviewers), considering the authors’ selection, the paper’s content, and other factors such as (if applicable) possible conflicts of interest.

AI for Analysis and Testing

Agentic or LLM-based specification inference
Agentic or LLM-based code generation
Agentic or LLM-based software testing
Agentic of LLM-based program analysis
Agentic or LLM-based program repair

Analysis and Testing for AI

Testing and analysis of agents or agentic systems
Testing and analysis of ML-model/software hybrid systems
Testing and analysis of ML-components and libraries
Fairness, safety, trustworthiness

Software Test Generation

Regression, mutation, and model-based testing
System, unit, and integration testing
Black-, grey-, and white-box fuzzing
Search-based software testing
Symbolic and concolic execution

Software Debugging and Repair

Fault localization and debugging
Search-based program repair
Constraint-based program repair
Reverse engineering
Program comprehension
Specification inference

Software Verification and Analysis Techniques

Static, dynamic, and empirical program analysis
Program verification, runtime verification, and model checking
Refactoring, transformation, and reduction
Testing and analysis in CI/CD or deployment
Testing and analysis of evolving systems
Mutation testing and analysis
Ecosystem-scale analysis
Non-functional properties (dependability, safety, reliability, and performance)

Analysis and Testing for Security

Binary analysis, lifting, and instrumentation
Vulnerability detection (e.g., sanitizers)
Side channels and data leakage
Supply chain analysis
Malware analysis
Obfuscation

Domain-specific Analysis and Testing

Testing and analysis of blockchain systems or smart contracts
Testing and analysis of concurrent or distributed systems
Testing and analysis of cyber physical or autonomous systems
Testing and analysis of database or operating systems
Testing and analysis of numerical and scientific applications
Testing and analysis of testing or analysis tools
Testing and analysis of web, mobile, or quantum applications

Empirical and User Studies of Testing and Analysis Processes

Software engineering processes (e.g., agile, DevOps)
Green and sustainable technologies
Ethics and values
Software economics
Systematic code review and inspection
Program comprehension and visualization