Faiz Ali Shah

Photo: Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi (Jan 2026)

I received my PhD in Computer Science from the University of Tartu in 2020, under the supervision of Prof. Dietmar Pfahl and Associate Prof. Kairit Sirts. Prior to joining the University of Tartu, I held the position of Assistant Professor at COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan, and gained industry experience as a software developer.

My research vision is to advance software engineering through the development of intelligent, trustworthy, and autonomous systems that ensure the quality and reliability of complex software. Specifically, I aim to develop AI-driven solutions capable of proactively testing safety-critical autonomous systems, autonomously repairing software defects, and enabling systems to self-heal in real time.

My research interests span Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering (AI4SE), Software Maintenance and Evolution, Software Testing, and Empirical Software Engineering. I supervise PhD and MSc students on topics including security vulnerability detection, repair and verification, synthetic test data generation, and the testing of self-driving cars.

selected publications

ITS4SDC: Intelligent test road selector for self-driving cars

A. I. Güllü, F. A. Shah, and D. Pfahl

Science of Computer Programming, 2026

DOI Bib HTML

@article{gullu2026its4sdc,
  title = {{ITS4SDC}: Intelligent test road selector for self-driving cars},
  author = {G{\"u}ll{\"u}, A. I. and Shah, F. A. and Pfahl, D.},
  journal = {Science of Computer Programming},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.scico.2026.103486},
}

A Robust LSTM-based Test Selection Method for Self-Driving Cars

A. I. Güllü, F. A. Shah, and D. Pfahl

In International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES), 2025

DOI Bib HTML

@inproceedings{gullu2025lstm,
  title = {A Robust {LSTM}-based Test Selection Method for Self-Driving Cars},
  author = {G{\"u}ll{\"u}, A. I. and Shah, F. A. and Pfahl, D.},
  booktitle = {International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES)},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1007/978-3-032-12089-2_5},
}

How Effectively Do LLMs Extract Feature-Sentiment Pairs from App Reviews?

F. A. Shah, A. Sabir, R. Sharma, and 1 more author

In 31st International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ), 2025

DOI Bib HTML

@inproceedings{shah2025llmreviews,
  title = {How Effectively Do {LLMs} Extract Feature-Sentiment Pairs from App Reviews?},
  author = {Shah, F. A. and Sabir, A. and Sharma, R. and Pfahl, D.},
  booktitle = {31st International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ)},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-88531-0_9},
}

ITS4SDC at the ICST Tool Competition – Self-Driving Car Testing Track

A. I. Güllü, F. A. Shah, and D. Pfahl

In International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST) Tool Competition, 2025

Top-performing tool in the competition

DOI Bib HTML

@inproceedings{gullu2025icst,
  title = {{ITS4SDC} at the {ICST} Tool Competition -- Self-Driving Car Testing Track},
  author = {G{\"u}ll{\"u}, A. I. and Shah, F. A. and Pfahl, D.},
  booktitle = {International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST) Tool Competition},
  year = {2025},
  note = {Top-performing tool in the competition},
  doi = {10.1109/ICST62969.2025.10988983},
}

Is the SAFE Approach Too Simple for App Feature Extraction? A Replication Study

F. A. Shah, K. Sirts, and D. Pfahl

In 25th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ), 2019

DOI Bib HTML

@inproceedings{shah2019safe,
  title = {Is the {SAFE} Approach Too Simple for App Feature Extraction? A Replication Study},
  author = {Shah, F. A. and Sirts, K. and Pfahl, D.},
  booktitle = {25th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ)},
  address = {Essen, Germany},
  year = {2019},
  doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-15538-4_2},
}