Zihan Fang, Ron Asoulin-Handelman, Helen Wu, Yu Huang, Gina R. Bai
Recent advances in generative AI have enabled assistants to generate increasingly sophisticated executable unit tests. However, novices may accept these outputs without independently identifying what to test, evaluating test-suite completeness, or verifying correctness, potentially limiting opportunities to develop essential testing skills. Although prior work has explored AI-assisted test generation and feedback-oriented programming tutors, little is known about whether AI can support novices' testing practices without generating tests for them. To investigate this, we introduce TestCompass, a generative AI tutor that provides targeted feedback on weaknesses in students' test suites without generating executable tests. In a classroom study with 18 students, we compared TestCompass with a general AI assistant across two Java unit-testing tasks, examining students' testing behaviors, test-suite quality, and subjective experiences. We found that participants using the general-purpose AI assistant produced more tests, whereas TestCompass participants spent more time developing and verifying tests themselves. However, most test-suite quality measures were comparable between conditions, and TestCompass participants achieved similar requirement coverage with significantly fewer test methods ($p=0.012$) in one task. Neither group reported short-term improvements in perceived testing knowledge or confidence. These findings suggest that feedback-oriented AI can support meaningful testing outcomes while preserving opportunities for hands-on testing practice, offering a complementary approach to AI-assisted testing education.
Zheng Lin, Zhanwei Wang, Yuxin Zhang, Yafei Wang, Ons Aouedi, Zihan Fang, Jinfeng Xu, Jing Yang 等 12 位作者
The proliferation of orbital sensing data and the real-time demands of emerging global services are pushing low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks from bent-pipe relays toward intelligent onboard processing. This shift confronts a fundamental tension, where modern artificial intelligence (AI) training paradigms require intensive computation, abundant memory, and stable connectivity, all of which are scarce under the dynamic topologies, intermittent links, and severe size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints of satellite networks. Addressing this tension demands rethinking AI workflows, from training and inference to the emerging deployment of large language models (LLMs), under a constraint-aware design philosophy. To the best of our knowledge, this paper provides the first survey that jointly covers all three, whereas prior surveys examine these aspects in isolation. We begin by identifying the deployment challenge of satellite intelligence (SI) and deriving design principles for SI. We then examine three advancing paradigms: i) distributed training, where federated learning (FL) and split learning (SL) enable satellite-ground co-training under resource limitations; ii) collaborative inference, which exploits single-satellite, multi-satellite, and satellite-ground architectures to meet real-time service demands; and iii) on-orbit LLM adaptation and serving, which tackles the frontier challenge of deploying LLMs under severe orbital constraints and resource-aware serving. Finally, we identify open challenges and future directions. By bridging the AI and satellite networks, this paper provides a research roadmap for the implementation of space-native AI technologies.