Project-Specific Code Summarization with Meta-Learning and Explainability Techniques

Code summarization generates natural language descriptions for code snippets, enhancing readability and maintainability.While current methods perform well with large-scale datasets, they struggle in low-resource scenarios typical of smaller and newer projects.Additionally, developers need summaries that capture project-specific characteristics rather than generic descriptions.To address these challenges, we propose a meta-learning-based training framework that adapts the model to individual projects as distinct tasks, even with minimal data.We introduce a strategy for selecting support projects to boost the framework's effectiveness.Experiments on eight real-world projects show that our method outperforms the baseline approach.Furthermore, we use explainability techniques to clarify the prediction process and identify potential issues.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14428/esann/2025.es2025-128
Primary Topic
Software Engineering Research
Type
article
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article

Project-Specific Code Summarization with Meta-Learning and Explainability Techniques

Quang-Huy Nguyen, Hoang Le, B. Le
Software Engineering Research
article

Project-Specific Code Summarization with Meta-Learning and Explainability Techniques

Quang-Huy Nguyen, Hoang Le, B. Le
article en

Abstract

Code summarization generates natural language descriptions for code snippets, enhancing readability and maintainability.While current methods perform well with large-scale datasets, they struggle in low-resource scenarios typical of smaller and newer projects.Additionally, developers need summaries that capture project-specific characteristics rather than generic descriptions.To address these challenges, we propose a meta-learning-based training framework that adapts the model to individual projects as distinct tasks, even with minimal data.We introduce a strategy for selecting support projects to boost the framework's effectiveness.Experiments on eight real-world projects show that our method outperforms the baseline approach.Furthermore, we use explainability techniques to clarify the prediction process and identify potential issues.

Openalex Percentile: Top 91%
Software Engineering Research
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