Rate My Professor Steve Zeil

Steven Zeil is an Associate Professor and Assistant Chair in the Department of Computer Science at Old Dominion University. He earned his B.A. in Physics and Applied Mathematics from Thomas More College in 1977, followed by an M.S. in Computer Science in 1978 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1981, both from Ohio State University. Zeil began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts from 1981 to 1988, during which he served as Graduate Program Director for two years, Graduate Admissions Chair for one year, and elected representative to the Faculty Senate for five years. In 1988, he joined Old Dominion University as an Associate Professor, taking on significant leadership roles including Chair of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee from 1990 to 1996, Coordinator of Internet-Based Course Delivery from 1998 to 2003, Distance Learning Coordinator from 2003 to 2019, and Chair of the Promotion and Tenure Committee from 2002 to 2017. Since 2016, he has served as Assistant Chair of the department. Earlier professional experience includes consulting for the Institute for Defense Analyses in 1988, software engineering at Metcut Research Associates in 1978, and programming at Thomas More College Computer Center from 1974 to 1977.

Zeil's research specializations include software testing and reliability, software engineering, and tools for computer science education. His earlier work focused on software testing and reliability measurement, while more recent efforts have addressed distance learning and digital libraries, with projects such as the AlgAE algorithm animation engine for instruction and metadata extraction tools from large document collections. Key publications include "A Scalable Backward Chaining-based Reasoner for a Semantic Web" (International Journal on Advances in Intelligent Systems, 2014, with Hui Shi and K. Maly), "Optimized Backward Chaining Reasoning System for a Semantic Web" (WIMS 2014), "Trust and Hybrid Reasoning for Ontological Knowledge Bases" (BigScholar 2014), and "Query Optimization in Cooperation with an Ontological Reasoning Service" (SERVICE COMPUTATION 2013). His scholarship has garnered over 1,000 citations on Google Scholar. Zeil has received the Outstanding Teacher award from the ODU College of Sciences in 2017, the College of Sciences Above & Beyond Award in 2020, and the Broderick Award for Excellence in Promoting Educational Accessibility in 2022. He is a member of the CS Department Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, ODU Information Technology Advisory Council, and serves as CS ABET Coordinator. Professional affiliations include ACM and IEEE Computer Society.