Archived page: A look into my Ph.D. years and journey before becoming a professor. For current updates, see Lab News and Publications.
University of Virginia | Computer Science
Archived PhD timeline and highlights
I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia in Summer 2025, where I was advised by Dr. Matthew Dwyer. Broadly, my research area is AI for Software Engineering, with a focus on requirements, testing, debugging, and repair for software systems. My long-term vision is to advance the development of high-quality, reliable software through cost-effective automation powered by AI/ML, large language models (LLMs), and agentic AI.
During my Ph.D., I collaborated with Lockheed Martin and multiple teams at AWS (CodeGuru, CodeCatalyst, and AWS AI Labs), and my work has been published in premier venues including ICSE, FSE, and NeurIPS.
Education
- Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Virginia
Advisor: Matthew Dwyer • Committee: Sebastian Elbaum, Yangfeng Ji, Matthew Bolton, Antonio Filieri
Thesis: Assessing and Improving Critical Properties of Test Oracles for Effective Software Bug Detection. - MCS, Computer Science, University of Virginia
Project: TOGLL: Correct and Strong Test Oracle Generation with LLMs. - B.Sc., CSE, BUET
Thesis: Balanced Coverage in Fault-Tolerant Broadcasting for Wireless Multi-hop Networks.
Research Awards
- Copenhaver Charitable Trust Bicentennial Fellow, UVA (2024–2025), $12,000.
- Finalist, UVA Research Computing Exhibition 2024 (Rivanna HPC), UVA.
- John A. Stankovic Outstanding Graduate Research Award (2022–2023), CS, UVA link
- Student Choice Best Research Award, 2023 CS Research Symposium, UVA link
- Best Research Poster, 2021 CS Research Symposium, UVA link
- PhD Fellowship, CS, UVA (2019)
- Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis, CSE, BUET (2016)
Service Award
- Outstanding Graduate Service Award, CS @ UVA (2022)
link
Leadership Chair, the Computer Science Graduate Student Group (CSGSG) for two years; organized leadership/social events; bridged students and department; organized the CS Research Symposium in 2020 & 2021.
Travel Grants
- ACM SIGSOFT travel grant - FSE'25, Trondheim, Norway.
- CRA travel grants - Grad Cohort (2023 San Francisco, 2020 New Orleans).
- The Society of Women Engineers (SWE)'24 - Chicago, IL (Oct 23-26, 2024).
- Grace Hopper Celebration (GHCI) - Bangalore, India (2015).
Undergraduate Academic Awards
- Top Ten Database Project, CSE, BUET (2014)
- Dean’s List (Level-2), CSE, BUET (2013–2014)
- University Merit Scholarship, CSE, BUET (2013–2014)
News
- August 1, 2025: Joined CS@UTD as a Tenure-track Assistant Professor.
- July 25, 2025: Relocated to Dallas, TX from beautiful Virginia.
- June 25, 2025: Attended FSE 2025 in Trondheim, Norway, and presented my paper Doc2OracLL.
- April 25, 2025: Attended ICSE 2025 in Ottawa, Canada, and presented my paper TOGLL.
- April 25, 2025: Successfully defended my Ph.D. and officially became Dr. Soneya Binta Hossain!
- April 2025: My paper Doc2Oracle: Investigating the Impact of Javadoc Comments on Test Oracle Generation was accepted at FSE'25 Research Track.
- November 2024: My paper TOGLL: Correct and Strong Test Oracle Generation with LLMs was accepted at ICSE'25 Research Track.
- September 2024: Received a travel grant to attend SWE24 - the world’s largest conference for women in engineering and technology - held October 23-26 in Chicago, IL.
- September 2024: Received UVA’s most prestigious Endowed Fellowship, awarded to outstanding doctoral students with a $12,000 stipend.
- May 2024: Received Master of Computer Science (MCS) from UVA with a CGPA of 4.0/4.0. [gallery]
- May 2024: Defended my Ph.D. dissertation proposal, titled Assessing and Improving Critical Properties of Test Oracles for Effective Software Bug Detection. [gallery]
- April 2024: Attended ICSE 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal, and presented my paper at the Doctoral Symposium. [gallery]
- April 2024: Honored to be selected as one of the five finalists at the UVA Research Computing Exhibition 2024.
- April 2024: My paper A Deep Dive into Large Language Models for Automated Bug Localization and Repair was accepted at FSE'24 Research Track.
- December 2023: My paper Ensuring Critical Properties of Test Oracles for Effective Bug Detection was accepted at the ICSE'24 Doctoral Symposium.
- December 2023: Presented our paper Neural-Based Test Oracle Generation: A Large-Scale Evaluation and Lessons Learned at FSE'23 (Dec 3-9) in San Francisco, CA. [gallery]
- October 2023: Honored to receive the Student Choice Research Award at the UVA CS Research Symposium 2023.
- July 2023: Our paper Neural-Based Test Oracle Generation: A Large-Scale Evaluation and Lessons Learned was accepted at the FSE'23 Research Track.
- June 2023: Started summer internship with the AWS CodeCatalyst team in Santa Clara, CA.
- May 2023: Presented our paper at ICSE'23 in Melbourne, Australia. [gallery]
- May 2023: Received the John A. Stankovic Outstanding Graduate Research Award. [gallery]
- April 2023: Attended CRA Grad Cohort in San Francisco, CA. [gallery]
- February 2023: Our research artifact was accepted at the ICSE 2023 Artifact Evaluation Track.
- December 2022: Our paper Measuring and Mitigating Gaps in Structural Testing was accepted at the ICSE'23 Technical Track.
- May 2022: Started summer internship with the AWS CodeGuru team in Seattle, WA.
- May 2022: Received the Outstanding Graduate Service Award. [gallery]
- April 2022: Attended ICSE'22 in Pittsburgh, PA.
- December 2021: Received the Outstanding Research Poster Award at the CS Research Symposium.
- December 2021: Organized the CS Department Research Symposium; see the news and tweet.
- September 2021: Passed the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam with flying colors!
- April 2021: Attended the CRA-W Grad Cohort Workshop 2021 (virtual, due to COVID-19).
- February 2021: Started working as a TA for Graduate Compilers (CS 6620) with Prof. Matt Dwyer.
- August 2019: Began Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Virginia.