Zhi Quan (George) Zhou

George helped establish metamorphic testing and extended its application to search engines, autonomous driving and machine-learning systems. The work addresses a practical problem for researchers and testers working on these systems: checking software when a correct answer is not available in advance. Hands-on conference material and community leadership also help make this research accessible to the wider testing community.

Zhi Quan (George) Zhou is a software testing researcher and co-originator of metamorphic testing, formerly based at the University of Wollongong and working with NIO Automobile Technology. Career milestones across academia and industry include a computer science degree from Peking University, a PhD in software engineering from the University of Hong Kong, a tenured post at Wollongong, and leadership as Director of Test Development at Alibaba and Ant Group.

George co-originated metamorphic testing to address the challenge of evaluating software when correct outputs cannot easily be predicted in advance. Real-world applications span search engines, autonomous driving and machine-learning systems. Published investigations also cover network scanning verification and advanced driver-assistance systems, linking formal methods directly to software safety and reliability.

Within the broader technical community, George delivered a hands-on introduction to metamorphic testing at the International Conference on Software Engineering in 2018 and serves as General Co-Chair of EXPRESS 2025, actively sharing research methods and practical knowledge across software engineering.