Yinan Wu

Yinan Wu

PhD Student in Computer Science · North Carolina State University

Hi, I am Yinan Wu, 吴疑难. I study human-AI collaboration, especially how developers work with AI systems. My work sits at the intersection of Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction, using mixed-methods user studies to understand usability, trust, and cognition in AI-assisted programming.

Research

My research uses human-centered empirical methods to study AI-assisted software development. I design user studies, conduct usability evaluations, and apply mixed-methods analysis to translate developer workflow data into research insights. I am open to collaborations on human-computer interaction and computer science education.

I am fortunate to be co-advised by Dr. Bowen Xu and Dr. Kathryn Thomasset Stolee at NC State.

I am also a member of the SoftMax Lab and the Wolfpack Innovations in Software Engineering Research (WISER) group. Before NC State, I was a member of the Software Analytics Research (SOAR) group at Singapore Management University in Singapore, under the supervision of Dr. David Lo.

Publications

FSE '26

How Do Developers Interact with AI? An Exploratory Study on Modeling Developer Programming Behavior

Yinan Wu, Ze Shi Li, Kathryn Thomasset Stolee, Bowen Xu

Research Track · International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering, 2026

Under Review

Test Code Review in the Era of GitHub Actions: A Replication Study

Hui Sun, Yinan Wu, Wesley K.G. Assunção, Kathryn Thomasset Stolee

Under review at Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), 2026

ISSTA '26

Hidden Licensing Risks in the LLMware Ecosystem

Bo Wang, Yueyang Chen, Jieke Shi, Minghui Li, Yunbo Lyu, Yinan Wu, Youfang Lin, Zhou Yang

Research Track · International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, 2026

VL/HCC '25

Fast Code, Heavy Heart: Emotional Responses in AI-Assisted Programming

Yinan Wu, Ze Shi Li, Kathryn Thomasset Stolee, Bowen Xu

Poster · Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, 2025

ICSME '25

Learning from the Best: What Makes a Hugging Face Model Popular?

Yinan Wu, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Bo Wang, Bach Le, David Lo

Registered Reports · International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution, 2025

News

A quiet meaning in my name

My Chinese name is 吴疑难, pronounced Wú Yínán in Mandarin Chinese /u³⁵ i³⁵ nän³⁵/.

The small wordplay is that sounds like , meaning "no" or "without," while 疑难 means "difficulty" or "problem." So the name sounds like 无疑难: no difficulties.