Understanding large-scale, complex software systems is a major challenge for developers, who spend a significant portion of their time on program comprehension. Traditional tools such as static visualizations and reverse engineering techniques provide structural insights but often lack interactivity, adaptability, and integration with contextual information. Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) offer new opportunities to enhance code exploration workflows, yet their lack of grounding and integration with structured views limits their effectiveness. This work introduces a hybrid approach that integrates deterministic reverse engineering with LLM-guided, intent-aware visual exploration. The proposed system combines UML-based visualization, dynamic user interfaces, historical context, and collaborative features into an adaptive tool for code comprehension. By interpreting user queries and interaction patterns, the LLM helps developers navigate and understand complex codebases more effectively. A prototype implementation for Java demonstrates the feasibility of this approach. Future work includes empirical evaluation, scaling to polyglot systems, and exploring GUI-driven LLM interaction models. This research lays the groundwork for intelligent, interactive environments that align with developer cognition and collaborative workflows.
Tue 7 OctDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
14:00 - 15:30 | Session 3Graduate Consortium at Duke Energy Hall Chair(s): Wesley Assunção North Carolina State University, Thomas LaToza George Mason University, Tim Menzies North Carolina State University | ||
14:00 30mTalk | AI-Guided Exploration of Large-Scale Codebases Graduate Consortium Yoseph Berhanu Alebachew Virginia Tech | ||
14:30 30mTalk | Understanding and Integrating AI Model Maintenance in CS Education Graduate Consortium Fatema Tuz Zohra George Mason University | ||
15:00 30mTalk | Lowering the Barriers to Designing and Creating Electronics-Based Tangibles for Learning Programming Graduate Consortium David Wong-Aitken PhD Candidate | ||
