Dr. Meng Xu

Biography

Meng Xu focuses on system software security, aiming to deliver high-quality solutions for practical security programs, particularly in identifying and patching vulnerabilities in critical computer systems. His research encompasses the development of automated program analysis, testing, and verification tools that facilitate security reasoning in key programs. He advocates for security to be treated as a first-class consideration in programming, rather than an afterthought. He emphasizes the importance of secure-by-design languages, such as Rust and Move, and employs techniques like symbolic model checking and fuzzing for automated program analysis, as well as runtime defense techniques including moving target defense and secure hardware solutions. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, he spent a gap year as a member of the Move language team at Facebook/Novi, where he worked on the Move compiler, interpreter, and prover. The Move programming language offers memory safety and resource safety features, which are critical in distributed settings.

Research Interests