arXiv subjects

Yuchen Shao

Publications and source records attributed to Yuchen Shao.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

FFSlim: An Efficient and Lightweight Format for Multi-modal Data Storage and Retrieval

With the rapid expansion of large-scale media-text corpora, multi-modal datasets increasingly require efficient storage and retrieval. Existing formats such as Files, TDP, and FFRecord work adequately for uni-modal data but expose fundamental limitations in multi-modal settings, including storage redundancy, massive small-file overheads, cache-unfriendly layouts, and heavy index structures. These issues jointly inflate storage and memory usage and make I/O the dominant bottleneck in real training workloads. We present FFSlim, a lightweight format for storing and retrieving multi-modal data. FFSlim improves storage efficiency and loading throughput through three components: a unified file format that removes media duplication and avoids small-file proliferation; an adaptive retrieval mechanism that enables low-overhead pair-level access and accelerates repeated media loading; and a redundancy detection and aggregation module that converts existing datasets into the FFSlim layout. The experimental results demonstrate that FFSlim achieves 2.07x and 8.26x higher data loading and write throughput on average than the strongest baseline, with minimal storage and index overhead. Consequently, these underlying I/O accelerations enable FFSlim to reduce end-to-end training time by 5.36%-14.18% across seven diverse multi-modal models.

cs.PF↗

arXiv2025

Are LLMs Correctly Integrated into Software Systems?

Large language models (LLMs) provide effective solutions in various application scenarios, with the support of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). However, developers face challenges in integrating LLM and RAG into software systems, due to lacking interface specifications, various requirements from software context, and complicated system management. In this paper, we have conducted a comprehensive study of 100 open-source applications that incorporate LLMs with RAG support, and identified 18 defect patterns. Our study reveals that 77% of these applications contain more than three types of integration defects that degrade software functionality, efficiency, and security. Guided by our study, we propose systematic guidelines for resolving these defects in software life cycle. We also construct an open-source defect library Hydrangea.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Understanding, Detecting, and Repairing Real-World In-Context-Learning-Based Text-to-SQL Errors

Large language models (LLMs) have been adopted for text-to-SQL tasks, utilizing their in-context learning (ICL) capability to translate natural language questions into SQL queries. However, such a technique faces correctness problems. In this paper, we conduct the first comprehensive study of text-to-SQL errors of ICL-based techniques. Our study covers four representative ICL-based techniques, five basic repairing methods, two benchmarks, and two LLM settings. We find that text-to-SQL errors are widespread and summarize 27 error types of 7 categories. We also find that existing repairing attempts have limited correctness improvement while having high computational overhead and many mis-repairs. Based on these findings, we propose MapleDoctor, a novel text-to-SQL error detection and repairing framework. The evaluation demonstrates that MapleDoctor outperforms existing solutions by repairing 13.8% more queries with a negligible number of mis-repairs and reducing 67.4% repair latency. The artifact is publicly available at GitHub.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2024

Understanding the Fundamental Design Decisions of Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a critical technique for enhancing large language model (LLM) capabilities. However, practitioners face significant challenges when making RAG deployment decisions. While existing research prioritizes algorithmic innovations, a systematic gap persists in understanding fundamental engineering trade-offs that determine RAG success. We present the first comprehensive study of three universal RAG deployment decisions: whether to deploy RAG, how much information to retrieve, and how to integrate retrieved knowledge effectively. Through systematic experiments across three LLMs and six datasets spanning question answering and code generation tasks, we reveal critical insights: (1) RAG deployment must be highly selective, with variable recall thresholds and failure modes affecting up to 12.6\% of samples even with perfect documents. (2) Optimal retrieval volume exhibits task-dependent behavior QA tasks show universal patterns (5-10 documents optimal) while code generation requires scenario-specific optimization. (3) Knowledge integration effectiveness depends on task and model characteristics, with code generation benefiting significantly from prompting methods while question answering shows minimal improvement. These findings demonstrate that universal RAG strategies prove inadequate. Effective RAG systems require context-aware design decisions based on task characteristics and model capabilities. Our analysis provides evidence-based guidance for practitioners and establishes foundational insights for principled RAG deployment. Our code, data and artifacts are publicly available at https://github.com/ShengmingZ/RAG_Benchmark_Code_QA.

cs.SE↗