| Email: | [email protected], [email protected] |
| Phone: | (212) 650-3988/(212) 817-8205 (on Tuesdays) |
| Fax: | (212) 772-5219 |
| Office: | Hunter North 1090-J/Graduate Center, Room 4410 |
| Office hours: | By appointment during Summer 2026. |
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Hunter College and a member of the Doctoral Faculty of The Graduate School and University Center’s Ph.D. Program in Computer Science at the City University of New York (CUNY). I am also a member of the CUNY Institute of Computer Simulation, Stochastic Modeling, and Optimization (CoSSMO) and lead the PONDER Lab @ CUNY (flyer).
My research lies at the intersection of software engineering (SE), programming languages (PL), and reliable Machine Learning (ML) systems. I investigate how program analysis, automated refactoring, and type theory can ease the burden of correctly, efficiently, and securely evolving large and complex software. A major focus of my work is on software engineering for ML and Big Data systems, where I develop “safe parallelization” techniques tailored for data-intensive environments. Furthermore, I design automated source code transformations that may not be sound; by relaxing strict soundness guarantees, my research enables speculative optimization and broader, more aggressive refactoring across massive, real-world codebases. This work is externally supported by multiple major research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as funding from JSPS, AWS, Google Cloud, and the Verizon Foundation.
Beyond my research, I am deeply dedicated to training the next generation of computer scientists. I provide extensive research mentorship and thesis advising across all academic levels—from high school students to doctoral candidates. I am also actively involved in shaping the future of the SE and PL communities, regularly serving on program committees for premier conferences (including ICSE, ASE, SLE, and ECOOP) and taking on major organizational roles to support computer science outreach and student mentorship.
I am currently seeking talented and highly motivated undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students who are interested in Machine Learning (ML) systems, programming languages, and software engineering research. For prospective students wishing to pursue doctoral degrees with me as a mentor, please apply to the CUNY Graduate Center’s CS PhD program and list me as a faculty member you would potentially like to work with on your application.
Originally from Edison, New Jersey, I received my MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Ohio State University and my BS in Computer Science from Monmouth University. Before joining CUNY, I worked as a Software Engineer at Apple, Inc. in Cupertino, California. Outside of academia, I enjoy traveling, following New York sports, and exploring Brooklyn. And for the record, my text editor of choice is strictly Vim—certainly not nano.
For a comprehensive look at my current courses and professional activities, please view my teaching and service pages. You may also find more information about me by visiting my CUNY Academic Commons profile, vita, and blog (you can subscribe to updates).
Contents
Featured Publications (all)
My and my research students’ names are boldfaced, undergraduate students are italicized, and female students are underlined:
Raffi Khatchadourian, Tatiana Castro Vélez, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Nan Jia, and Anita Raja. Speculative automated refactoring of imperative Deep Learning programs to graph execution. In International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE ’25, pages 752–764. IEEE/ACM, IEEE, November 2025. (245/1190; 20.6% acceptance rate). [ bib | DOI | arXiv | video | data | slides | poster | http ]. Formal tool demonstration in Artur Boronat and Gordon Fraser, editors, Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, FASE ’25, pages 89–100, Cham, May 2025. ETAPS, Springer Nature Switzerland. (11/31; 35% acceptance rate). EAPLS Distinguished Paper Award 🏆. [ bib | DOI | tool | slides | poster | http ]
Yiming Tang, Raffi Khatchadourian, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Rhia Singh, Ajani Stewart, and Anita Raja. An empirical study of refactorings and technical debt in Machine Learning systems. In International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE ’21, pages 238–250. IEEE/ACM, IEEE, May 2021. (138/615; 22% acceptance rate). [ bib | DOI | video | data | slides | http ]
Raffi Khatchadourian, Yiming Tang, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, and Syed Ahmed. Safe automated refactoring for intelligent parallelization of Java 8 streams. In International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE ’19, pages 619–630, Piscataway, NJ, USA, May 2019. ACM/IEEE, IEEE Press. (109/529; 20.6% acceptance rate). [ bib | DOI | tool | slides | http ]. Expanded version (> 30% more work) in Science of Computer Programming, 195, 2020. [ bib | DOI | http ]. Engineering track paper in International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation, SCAM ’18, pages 34–39. IEEE, IEEE Press, September 2018. Distinguished Paper Award 🏆. [ bib | DOI | tool | slides | http ]
Raffi Khatchadourian and Hidehiko Masuhara. Automated refactoring of legacy Java software to default methods. In International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE ’17, pages 82–93, Piscataway, NJ, USA, May 2017. ACM/IEEE, IEEE Press. (68/398; 17% acceptance rate). [ bib | DOI | slides | http ]. Formal tool demonstration in International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE ’17, pages 984–989, Piscataway, NJ, USA, October 2017. ACM/IEEE, IEEE Press. [ bib | DOI | tool | slides | http ]
Raffi Khatchadourian, Yiming Tang, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, and Baishakhi Ray. An empirical study on the use and misuse of Java 8 streams. In Heike Wehrheim and Jordi Cabot, editors, Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, FASE ’20, pages 97–118, Cham, April 2020. ETAPS, Springer International Publishing. (23/81; 28% acceptance rate). EAPLS Best Paper Award 🏆. [ bib | DOI | data | slides | http ]
Featured Professional Activities
Awards
- European Association for Programming Languages and Systems (EAPLS) distinguished paper at FASE ’25
- European Association for Programming Languages and Systems (EAPLS) best paper award at FASE ’20.
- Distinguished paper award at IEEE SCAM ’18.
- Best paper award nominee at IJCAI AISafety ’24.
- Distinguished reviewer award at GPCE ’21.
- Distinguished reviewer award at IEEE SCAM ’21.
- CRA 2026 Emerging Leaders Cohort selection.
- JSPS 2020 BRIDGE fellowship recipient.
- NSF EAPSI fellowship recipient.
- Eleanor Quinlan Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Grants
- NSF CISE/CCF/SHF research grant on combating technical debt in Machine Learning systems as PI.
- NSF CISE/CCF/SHF research grant on imperative Deep Learning program evolution as PI.
- Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York (WiTNY) grant as co-PI.
- JSPS US Alumni Association Seminar Program grant as sole investigator.
- CUNY Diversity Projects Development Fund award (DPDF) as sole investigator.
Program Committees (all)
- ASE ‘24, ‘25, ‘26.
- ICSE ‘24, ‘25, ‘26.
- SLE ’26.
- GPCE ‘21, ‘22, ‘23, ‘26.
- ‹Programming› ’23.
- IEEE SCAM ’21.
- ECOOP ’20.
Conference and Workshop Organization (all)
- SPLASH ’21, ’22 (workshops co-chair).
- CoSEDS ’22 (PC co-chair).
- NYPLSE ’19 (sole organizer).
- Hunter College Cyber Security Summer Camp for female non-CS majors (co-organizer).
- WAPI ’18 at ICSE ’18 (co-organizer).
- ESEC/FSE ’18 (publicity chair).
- LaMod ’16 at MODULARITY ’16 (co-organizer).
- ECOOP ’11 (web chair).
