Colin J. Neill

Colin Neill Headshot
Chancellor, Dean, and Chief Academic Officer, Chancellor's Office
Professor of Software and Systems Engineering, Engineering Division
[email protected]
610-648-3202

Colin J. Neill earned his Ph.D. in software and systems engineering, M.Sc. in communication systems, and B.Eng. in electrical engineering from the University of Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom. He teaches a wide range of software and systems engineering courses in system design and architecture, project management, and systems thinking. Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. Neill worked on time and mission critical system modeling and design and manufacturing systems and production management with University of Wales, Swansea, Oxford University, the Rover Car Company, and British Aerospace. He is author of over 80 articles on the development and evolution of complex software and systems and the management and governance thereof. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of INCOSE, and serves as associate editor-in-chief of Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering. As Director of Engineering Programs, Dr. Neill oversees the Division’s portfolio of graduate degree programs delivered both in residence and online.

Awards

  • 2009 Teaching Excellence Award, Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies
  • 2006 Distinguished Service Award, Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies
  • 2005 Distinguished Research Award, Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies

Selected Publications

Neill, Colin J., Phillip A. Laplante, and Joanna F. DeFranco. Antipatterns: Managing Software Organizations and People. Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publications, 2012.

Neill, Colin J., Joanna F. DeFranco & Raghvinder S. Sangwan. “Improving Collaborative Learning in Online Software Engineering Education,” to appear European Journal of Engineering Education, (2016).

Neill, Colin J, Raghvinder.S. Sangwan, and Nil H. Kilicay-Ergin. “A Prescriptive Approach to Lifetime Value-focused System Architecture” to appear IEEE Systems Journal, (2015).

Barb, Adrian S., Colin J. Neill, Raghvinder S. Sangwan, and Michael J. Piovoso. "A statistical study of the relevance of lines of code measures in software projects." Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering 10, no. 4 (2014): 243-260

Kassab, Mohamad, Colin J. Neill and Phillip A. Laplante. “Software Development Practices and Software Quality: A Survey,” Software Quality Professional 16, no. 4, (2014).

DeFranco, Joanna F., Colin J. Neill, and Roy B. Clariana. "A cognitive collaborative model to improve performance in engineering teams—A study of team outcomes and mental model sharing." Systems Engineering 14, no. 3 (2011): 267-278.

Sangwan, Raghvinder S., Pamela Vercellone-Smith, and Colin J. Neill. "Use of a multidimensional approach to study the evolution of software complexity." Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering 6, no. 4 (2010): 299-310.

Sangwan, Raghvinder, Colin J. Neill, Matthew Bass, and Zakaria El Houda. "Integrating a software architecture-centric method into object-oriented analysis and design." Journal of Systems and Software 81, no. 5 (2008): 727-746.

Neill, Colin J., and Phillip A. Laplante. "Paying down design debt with strategic refactoring." Computer 39, no. 12 (2006): 113-116.

Neill, Colin J., and Phillip A. Laplante. "Requirements engineering: the state of the practice." IEEE software 20, no. 6 (2003): 40.

  • B.Eng., Electrical Engineering, University of Wales Swansea
  • M.Sc., Communication Systems, University of Wales Swansea
  • Ph.D., Software and Systems Engineering, University of Wales Swansea