Yanju Chen

yanju@ucsd.edu Google Scholar GitHub CV Some Deadlines

I am a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, San Diego working with Prof. Yufei Ding. I develop program synthesis and verification methods in which logical reasoning and learned models complement each other, so that programs, and the AI agents that increasingly write and run them, are correct by construction, efficient at scale, and easy to use.

I’ve recently earned a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at University of California, Santa Barbara, advised by Prof. Yu Feng. Even earlier, I studied in Computer Science at Sun Yat-sen University, advised by Prof. Rong Pan.

Publications & Manuscripts

(+ means equal contribution)

Conference and Journal Publications

  1. [NDSS’27]
    Revealing Semantic Gaps in Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machines via Obligation-Targeted Semantic Fuzzing
    Hongbo Wen, Jingyu Ke, Hanzhi Liu, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng
  2. [CCS’26]
    Thunderbolt: A Formally Verified Protocol for Off-Chain Bitcoin Transfers
    Hongbo Wen, Hanzhi Liu, Yanju Chen, Jingyu Ke, Dahlia Malkhi, Yu Feng
  3. [ASE’25]
    Automated Repair of OpenID Connect Programs
    Tamjid Al Rahat, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng, Yuan Tian
  4. [OOPSLA’25]
    Tabby: A Synthesis-Aided Compiler for High-Performance Zero-Knowledge Proof Circuits
    Junrui Liu, Jiaxin Song, Yanning Chen, Hanzhi Liu, Hongbo Wen, Luke Pearson, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng
  5. [ASE’24]
    Refinement Types for Visualization
    Jingtao Xia + Junrui Liu, Nicholas Brown, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng
  6. [CCS’24]
    Foray: Towards Effective Attack Synthesis against Deep Logical Vulnerabilities in DeFi Protocols
    Hongbo Wen, Hanzhi Liu, Jiaxin Song, Yanju Chen, Wenbo Guo, Yu Feng
  7. [USENIX Sec’24]
    Practical Security Analysis of Zero-Knowledge Proof Circuits
    Hongbo Wen, Jon Stephens, Yanju Chen, Kostas Ferles, Shankara Pailoor, Kyle Charbonnet, Isil Dillig, Yu Feng
  8. [ASE’23]
    Fast and Reliable Program Synthesis via User Interaction
    Yanju Chen, Chenglong Wang, Xinyu Wang, Osbert Bastani, Yu Feng
  9. [PLDI’23b]
    Automated Detection of Under-constrained Circuits in Zero-Knowledge Proofs
    Shankara Pailoor + Yanju Chen, Franklyn Wang, Clara Rodríguez, Jacob Van Geffen, Jason Morton, Michael Chu, Brian Gu, Yu Feng, Isil Dillig
  10. [PLDI’23a]
    Conflict-Driven Synthesis for Layout Engines
    Junrui Liu, Yanju Chen, Eric Atkinson, Yu Feng, Rastislav Bodik
  11. [ASE’22]
    Learning Contract Invariants Using Reinforcement Learning
    Junrui Liu + Yanju Chen, Bryan Tan, Isil Dillig, Yu Feng
  12. [OOPSLA’22b]
    Synthesis-Powered Optimization of Smart Contracts via Data Type Refactoring
    Yanju Chen + Yuepeng Wang, Maruth Goyal, James Dong, Yu Feng, Isil Dillig
  13. [OOPSLA’22a]
    Automated Transpilation of Imperative to Functional Code Using Neural-Guided Program Synthesis
    Benjamin Mariano, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng, Greg Durrett, Isil Dillig
  14. [PLDI’22]
    Visualization Question Answering Using Introspective Program Synthesis
    Yanju Chen, Xifeng Yan, Yu Feng
    ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Paper Award
  15. [ASPLOS’22]
    Tree Traversal Synthesis Using Domain-Specific Symbolic Compilation
    Yanju Chen, Junrui Liu, Yu Feng, Rastislav Bodik
  16. [S&P’22]
    Sailfish: Vetting Smart Contract State-Inconsistency Bugs in Seconds
    Priyanka Bose, Dipanjan Das, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng, Christopher Kruegel, Giovanni Vigna
  17. [ASE’20]
    Demystifying Loops in Smart Contracts
    Benjamin Mariano, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng, Shuvendu Lahiri, Isil Dillig
  18. [CAV’20]
    Program Synthesis Using Deduction-Guided Reinforcement Learning
    Yanju Chen, Chenglong Wang, Osbert Bastani, Isil Dillig, Yu Feng
  19. [FSE’19]
    Maximal Multi-Layer Specification Synthesis
    Yanju Chen, Ruben Martins, Yu Feng
  20. [VLDB’19]
    Trinity: An Extensible Synthesis Framework for Data Science
    Ruben Martins, Jia Chen, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng, Isil Dillig
  21. [AAAI’17]
    Automatic Emphatic Information Extraction from Aligned Acoustic Data and Its Application on Sentence Compression
    Yanju Chen, Rong Pan

Preprints, Presentations and Others

  1. [arXiv’26f]
    VIGIL: Runtime Enforcement of Behavioral Specifications in AI Agent Skills
    Ying Li, Yanju Chen, Hongbo Wen, Bosi Zhang, Hanzhi Liu, Peiran Wang, Yu Feng, Yuan Tian
  2. [arXiv’26e]
    No Attack Required: Semantic Fuzzing for Specification Violations in Agent Skills
    Ying Li, Hongbo Wen, Yanju Chen, Hanzhi Liu, Yuan Tian, Yu Feng
  3. [arXiv’26d]
    Options, Not Clicks: Lattice Refinement for Consent-Driven MCP Authorization
    Ying Li, Yanju Chen, Peiran Wang, Issac Khabra, Faysal Hossain Shezan, Yu Feng, Yuan Tian
  4. [arXiv’26c]
    Semia: Auditing Agent Skills via Constraint-Guided Representation Synthesis
    Hongbo Wen, Ying Li, Hanzhi Liu, Chaofan Shou, Yanju Chen, Yuan Tian, Yu Feng
  5. [arXiv’26b]
    Synthesizing Multi-Agent Harnesses for Vulnerability Discovery
    Hanzhi Liu, Chaofan Shou, Xiaonan Liu, Hongbo Wen, Yanju Chen, Ryan Jingyang Fang, Yu Feng
  6. [arXiv’26a]
    Your Agent Is Mine: Measuring Malicious Intermediary Attacks on the LLM Supply Chain
    Hanzhi Liu, Chaofan Shou, Hongbo Wen, Yanju Chen, Ryan Jingyang Fang, Yu Feng
  7. [SBC’25]
    Tessel: An Optimizing Compiler for Efficient Zero-Knowledge Circuits
    Junrui Liu, Jiaxin Song, Yanning Chen, Hanzhi Liu, Hongbo Wen, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng
  8. [VehicleSec’25]
    Stateful Behavior Inference and Runtime Enforcement for Vehicle Network Security
    Achintya Desai, Ruochen Dai, Yanju Chen, Ky Ho, Austin Kee, Sophie Bulatovic, Md Shafiuzzaman, Ken (Yihang) Bai, Il Ung Jeong, David Siu, Tuba Yavuz, Tevfik Bultan
  9. [ePrint’24b]
    Programmable Bitcoin Verification via Synthesis-Aided Lifting
    Hanzhi Liu, Jingyu Ke, Hongbo Wen, Luke Pearson, Robin Linus, Lukas George, Manish Bista, Hakan Karakuş, Domo, Junrui Liu, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng
  10. [ePrint’24a]
    Stateless and Verifiable Execution Layer for Meta-Protocols on Bitcoin
    Hongbo Wen, Hanzhi Liu, Shuyang Tang, Tianyue Li, Shuhan Cao, Domo, Yanju Chen, Yu Feng
  11. [Dissertation]
    Deduction-Powered Neural Program Synthesis: A Synergistic Perspective
    Yanju Chen

Academic Service

(PC - Program/Review Committee·AEC - Artifact Evaluation Committee·ERC - Extended Review Committee)

  1. 2027
    PC | FSE, LLM4Code@ICSE, USENIX Security·AEC | POPL
  2. 2026
    PC | ISSTA, PLDI, USENIX Security·Shadow PC | ICSE·Reviewer | TOSEM·AEC | CAV, ECOOP, ICFP, ISSTA, S&P
  3. 2025
    PC | OOPSLA, USENIX Security·AEC | CAV, ECOOP, ICFP, ISSTA
  4. 2024
    PC | AutoMates@IJCAI·Reviewer | TACO·ERC | ECOOP·AEC | CCS, ECOOP, PLDI, VMCAI
  5. 2023
    PC | AutoMates@IJCAI, SPLASH Student Research Competition·Reviewer | TACO, TOSEM·ERC | ECOOP·AEC | ECOOP, PLDI, VMCAI
  6. 2022
    AEC | PLDI
  7. 2021
    AEC | PLDI
  8. 2020
    AEC | OOPSLA·Student Volunteer | POPL
  9. 2017
    Student Volunteer | AAAI

Teaching

(F. - Fall·W. - Winter·S. - Spring·M. - Summer)

Teaching Assistant | University of California, Santa Barbara

  1. F.2025, S.2024
    CS 190J: Blockchain Technologies and Security
  2. W.2022, W.2021
    CS 595N: Research Seminar
  3. S.2021
    CS 190I: Program Synthesis
  4. W.2020
    CS 162: Programming Languages
  5. S.2019
    CS 130A: Data Structures and Algorithms - I
  6. W.2019
    CS 4: Computer Science Bootcamp
  7. F.2018
    CS 165A: Artificial Intelligence
  8. M.2018
    CS 8: Introduction to Computer Science
  9. S.2018
    CS 16: Problem Solving with Computers - I
  10. F.2017
    CS 40: Foundations of Computer Science

(Guest) Lecturer | University of California, Santa Barbara

  1. F.2025, S.2024
    CS 190J: Blockchain Technologies and Security
  2. S.2022
    CS 292C: Computer-Aided Reasoning for Software
  3. S.2021
    CS 190I: Program Synthesis
  4. S.2018
    CS 291K: Deep Learning

Honors & Awards

  1. 2025
    University of California, Riverside: FAME Award
  2. 2023
    Ethereum Foundation Academic Award
    UCSB Computer Science Outstanding PhD Student of the Year
  3. 2022
    ACM SIGPLAN PLDI Distinguished Paper Award
    ACM SIGPLAN PAC Award - OOPSLA
    ACM SIGPLAN PAC Award - PLDI
  4. 2017
    AAAI Student Scholarship

Recent Talks

  1. 2026
    A Synthesis-Aided Compiler for High-Performance Zero-Knowledge Proof Circuits
    SoCal PLSUniversity of Southern California, CA, USA
  2. 2025
    An Optimizing Compiler for Efficient Zero-Knowledge Circuits
    The Science of Blockchain Conference (SBC) 2025University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
  3. 2025
    Towards Intelligent Agents for Trustworthy Zero-Knowledge Circuit Programming
    University of California, Riverside: FAME WorkshopUniversity of California, Riverside, CA, USA
  4. 2025
    Compiler-Assisted Optimization of Finite Field Arithmetic via Refinement Types
    SoCal PLSUniversity of California, San Diego, CA, USA
  5. 2024
    DeFi Security
    Guest Lecture, CS 190J (Blockchain)University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  6. 2023
    ZKSwift: A Programming Language for High-Performance ZK Circuits
    ProgCrypto: Programmable Cryptography Conference @ DevconnectIstanbul, Turkey
  7. 2023
    Program Synthesis for All: A Synergistic Perspective
    Purdue CS Research SeminarPurdue University, IN, USA
    Berkeley Programming Systems SeminarUniversity of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
    Stanford Software Research SeminarStanford University, CA, USA
    UCSB Graduate Research SeminarUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  8. 2022
    Formal Verification for Zero-Knowledge Circuits
    0xPARC Summer ResidencyNew York City, NY, USA
  9. 2022
    Program Synthesis for Complex Software Systems
    PhD Proposal TalkUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  10. 2022
    Attack Synthesis for Blockchain Security
    Guest Lecture, CS 292C (Computer-Aided Reasoning)University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  11. 2022
    A Symbolic Virtual Machine for Automated R1CS Verification
    0xPARC ZK Learning Group #2New York City, NY, USA
  12. 2021
    Multi-Modal Program Synthesis
    Guest Lecture, CS 190I (Program Synthesis)University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  13. 2021
    Program Synthesis for Data Science
    Tutorial, ISEC’21 Synthesis4SE WorkshopBhubaneswar, India
  14. 2020
    Bridging Logical Reasoning and Machine Learning in Program Synthesis
    PhD Major Area Examination TalkUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  15. 2018
    Deep Learning in Open-Domain Dialogue Systems
    Guest Lecture, CS 291K (Deep Learning)University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA