Research in AI
UCF has made research in AI a strategic priority, and is investing appropriately, with additional faculty hiring in this area. In addition to several hires in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, recent hires for AI research have been made in the College of Community Innovation and Education, the College of Medicine, the College of Business Administration, and the College of Sciences.
There is a strong and long-standing history of research in AI. UCF professor Mubarak Shah runs Aii, the original Artificial Intelligence Initiative on campus. Dr. Shah also directs the Center for Research in Computer Vision. Both ventures work with dozens of faculty from many disciplines.
Research About AI
One of the goals of the “AI for All” initiative is that faculty from disparate fields start to contemplate performing research on AI from their own disciplinary perspectives. To that end, we will use both this webpage and our newsletter to shine a spotlight on AI research, in the hopes that others can become inspired.
If you’re looking to partner with someone on an AI-related research project, email ai@ucf.edu to get started with finding potential partners. We will include your “advertisement” in a future newsletter mailing.
Support Letters
The “AI for All” initiative is happy to provide letters of support for grant applications that align with our mission, goals, and objectives. Contact ai@ucf.edu for more information.
Grants
This section will be updated with information about (non-technical) AI-related grants that are accepting submissions. Researchers seeking AI-related grants of a technical (programming) nature should search the Pivot database directly.
- Expressions of interest: artificial intelligence humanities sandpits: Canada, UK and US – We are looking for 60 participants from UK, Canadian and US research organisations to take part in in-person and virtual workshops. During the sandpit process, teams will form, develop and refine project ideas through a facilitated process guided by the sandpit Director and Mentors. We invite novel, transdisciplinary research that advances knowledge in both humanities and arts and technical domains while contributing to shared research infrastructure. Projects funded through the sandpit should demonstrate clear potential to:develop functioning prototypes that show measurable improvements in AI systems’ interpretive capabilities, create new evaluation frameworks and benchmarks that assess cultural sensitivity, contextual awareness and perspectival reasoning, integrate humanities or arts methodologies into technical design pipelines, showing direct influence on system design, and contribute to an open ecosystem of tools, methods and resources for interpretive AI. Due Oct 2025.
- The effects of artificial intelligence on firm and labour market outcomes – The project is organizing a portfolio of rigorous research into the effects of AI technologies on firms, labour markets, and labour market outcomes—such as efficiency, employment, retention, productivity, and earnings—in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) contexts. Due: April 2026.
- Humanities and AI Virtual Institute – Humanistic research is challenging, demanding significant time, energy, and resources to analyze extensive sources for insightful conclusions. However, AI tools present limitations for humanities researchers, as the technology often prioritizes uniformity, often erasing the cultural, material, and perceptual differences that are essential to humanistic research. We believe that combining traditional methods with AI and data-driven approaches can greatly expand access to scholarly resources and enable more rigorous, data-informed research outcomes in the humanities.
- AI Reporting Grants – We seek applications for our reporting initiative focused on AI and surveillance technologies and their impact on communities around the world. We value accountability and data reporting, collaborations, and cross-discipline approaches. Staff and freelance journalists are eligible.