PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

James Matthew Rehg

Also known as Jim Rehg, James M. Rehg

James Rehg is a computer vision researcher who applies machine learning to human behavior and health, from hand tracking and egocentric video to autism research and mobile health. A Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. under Takeo Kanade in 1995, he managed the computer vision group at the Cambridge Research Lab of DEC and Compaq until 2001. At Georgia Tech, he saw in 2008 that computer vision could help with autism diagnosis, served as General co-Chair of CVPR 2009 and Program co-Chair of CVPR 2017, and in 2021 led the Georgia Tech team on the Ego4D egocentric video dataset. Illinois named him director of its Health Care Engineering Systems Center in 2022, he became full time there in August 2023, and in 2026 his I2Care project won Honorable Mention in the Laude Institute's Moonshots // One competition. He is a Founder Professor of Computer Science and Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 1993–2001

    DigitEyes and the Cambridge lab

    In 1993, he and Takeo Kanade publish the technical report DigitEyes: Vision-Based Human Hand Tracking at Carnegie Mellon, and in 1995 he earns his Ph.D. there with the dissertation Visual Analysis of High DOF Articulated Objects with Application to Hand Tracking, advised by Kanade. From 1995 to 2001 he works at the Cambridge Research Lab of DEC (and then Compaq), managing its computer vision research group, and he receives an NSF CAREER award in 2001.

  2. By 2005

    Faculty at Georgia Tech

    By 2005, he is on the faculty at Georgia Tech, where he co-directs the Computational Perception Laboratory. The College of Computing gives him its 2005 Raytheon Faculty Fellowship Award, and a paper with Ph.D. student Yushi Jing and Vladimir Pavlovic wins a Distinguished Student Paper Award at ICML 2005.

  3. 2008

    Computer vision for autism

    In 2008, he is a computer science professor at Georgia Tech when a colleague describes the challenges of seeking autism diagnoses and assistance for their two children, and he sees that computer vision can help identify behaviors associated with autism. He goes on to lead a National Science Foundation Expedition in Computing and several NIH initiatives on social behavior and communication, and he is deputy director of the NIH-funded mDOT Center for data science tools for mobile health sensors.

  4. 2009–2017

    Chairing CVPR twice

    He serves as General co-Chair for CVPR 2009 and as Program co-Chair for CVPR 2017. He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and holds 26 issued US patents.

  5. 2021

    The Ego4D dataset

    In 2021, he leads Georgia Tech's team and the social benchmark team in Ego4D, an egocentric video dataset built by a consortium of universities brought together by Facebook AI. Ego4D offers 3,670 hours of daily-life video from 931 camera wearers at 74 locations in nine countries.

  6. 2022–2023

    Director of Illinois health center

    In November 2022, the Grainger College of Engineering selects him as director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center, with a Founder Professor appointment jointly in Computer Science and Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering. Because of a project with Meta, he ramps up his involvement at Illinois and becomes full time in August 2023.

  7. 2026

    A Laude Moonshots honorable mention

    In 2026, he is lead investigator on "Immersive Intelligence for Anywhere Anytime Healthcare", one of two Illinois projects to win Honorable Mention in the Laude Institute's Moonshots // One competition. The project will develop I2Care, an AI-powered extended reality system that creates a care team of on-site and virtual providers to widen the treatments front-line healthcare workers give.

  8. As of October 2026

    Founder Professor at Illinois

    He is a Founder Professor of Computer Science and Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and directs its Health Care Engineering Systems Center. His lab works on computer vision, social AI and multimodal foundation models, with applications in autism research and mobile health.

Career

  1. Since 2022University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignFounder Professor of Computer Science and Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering
  2. From 2005Georgia Institute of TechnologyProfessor
  3. Until 2001CompaqComputer Vision Research Group Manager
  4. From 1995Digital Equipment CorporationComputer Vision Research Group Manager

Education

  1. 1995Carnegie Mellon UniversityPhD

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of James Matthew Rehg yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Jim Rehg rehg.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. DigitEyes: Vision-Based Human Hand Tracking - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University ri.cmu.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. James Rehg - The Mathematics Genealogy Project mathgenealogy.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. James Rehg | Research Community people.research.gatech.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. From ASD to mobile health: new HCESC director Jim Rehg develops computational tools for health-related behaviors healtheng.illinois.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Jim Rehg | Health Care Engineering Systems Center | Illinois healtheng.illinois.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Through Another's Eyes: University Researchers, Facebook Release Massive Dataset to Expand Innovation in AI | College of Computing cc.gatech.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Ego4D: Around the World in 3,000 Hours of Egocentric Video arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. New director for HCESC | Health Care Engineering Systems Center | Illinois healtheng.illinois.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Laude Institute gives two Illinois research teams their (Moon)shots | Siebel School of Computing and Data Science | Illinois csl.illinois.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.