Our Mission
A bold, university-wide initiative, the UCF Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IAI) unites renowned faculty who advance AI across disciplines and colleges — enhancing students’ experiences while driving discovery that positively impacts industry, the economy and society.
UCF continues to fuel strong momentum in AI — from machine learning to mathematics, computer vision to healthcare and more. This future-focused institute propels us to the forefront of AI research and education, solidifying our place among the most innovative universities in the nation.
Explore the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at UCF.
Pioneering AI Technology:
Trustee Chair of Computer Science Mubarak Shah is the Director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence. He established the esteemed — currently ranked No. 9 nationally (CSRankings) — computer vision program at UCF, where he’s been a professor for over 40 years. Shah is known for groundbreaking work in computer vision, including the UCF‑101 human action recognition dataset.
Impact and Momentum:
Under Shah’s leadership, the institute is poised to lead AI’s transformation of innovation and workforce development — leveraging UCF’s strengths and scaling a unified AI enterprise, nationally and globally.
“The Institute of Artificial Intelligence unites UCF’s AI strengths under one roof, creating a platform for high-impact research and talent development. By bringing together leading faculty, motivated students and forward-thinking industry partners, the institute will unlock new possibilities across disciplines.”
— Mubarak Shah, Director of the UCF Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Trustee Chair of Computer Science
Supporting Strong Faculty Collaboration
More than two dozen esteemed UCF researchers make up the institute, representing four of the university’s colleges and a variety of future-focused fields. Based in the same building for maximum collaboration, these faculty members lead high-impact research and elevate AI educational offerings across the university.
Cuneyt Akcora
Amrit Singh Bedi
Laura Brattain
Yadi Cao
Chen Chen
Xinyu Chen
Aritra Dutta
Shahana Ibrahim
Shubhra Kanti Karmaker
Pegah Khosravi
Christian Kümmerle
Ser-Nam Lim
Wu Lin
Jialin Liu
Niels da Vitoria Lobo
Yogesh Rawat
Mubarak Shah
Yuzhang Shang
Ali Siahkoohi
Shashank Sonkar
Yu Tian
Jakub Tomczak
Shruti Vyas
Song Wang
Yue Wang
“AI is massively transforming how we live, work and learn. As Florida’s Premier Engineering and Technology University, UCF is uniquely positioned to lead in this critical space. This initiative reflects our broader commitment to grow research, scale our areas of excellence and prepare students to lead in a technology-driven future.”
— Alexander N. Cartwright, UCF President
News
Dr. Mubarak Shah Named UCF Big 12 Conference Faculty of the Year
Dr. Cüneyt Akcora Co-Authors New Cambridge University Press Textbook on Blockchain Data Science
IAI Researchers Have 15 Papers Accepted at ECCV 2026
Events
Dr. Mohit Bansal: “AI Challenges: Trustworthy Collaboration, World Discovery, and Long-Horizon Memory”
IAI Colloquium Series: “AI for Reskilling and Upskilling” by Dr. Ashok Goel