PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Mubarak Shah

Also known as M Shah, M. Shah, Mubarak A. Shah

Mubarak Shah is a computer vision researcher whose work spans motion-based recognition, shape from shading and human action recognition in video. Born in Lakhi Ghulam Shah in Pakistan’s Sindh province, he earned a B.E. in electronics at the National College of Engineering of Technology in 1979, then M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering at Wayne State University in 1982 and 1986. After joining UCF in 1986 and establishing its computer vision program, he coauthored UCF101 with Khurram Soomro and Amir Roshan Zamir, a 2012 dataset of 101 human action classes from videos in the wild. He became an IAPR Fellow in 2006, shared the PAMI Mark Everingham Prize and became an ACM Fellow in 2022, and received the CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award in 2024. As of October 2026, he is UCF Trustee Chair Professor and directs the Center for Research in Computer Vision and Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

Works
746
Citations
69,839
h-index
115

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Mubarak Shah

Timeline

  1. 1979–1986

    Engineering degrees

    Born in Lakhi Ghulam Shah in Pakistan’s Sindh province, he earns a B.E. in electronics at the National College of Engineering of Technology in 1979. He earns M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering at Wayne State University in 1982 and 1986.

  2. 1986

    Starting computer vision at UCF

    He joins UCF in 1986 and establishes its computer vision program.

  3. 2006

    An IAPR fellowship

    He becomes an IAPR Fellow in 2006 for contributions to motion-based recognition and shape from shading in computer vision.

  4. 2012

    The UCF101 action dataset

    With Khurram Soomro and Amir Roshan Zamir, he coauthors UCF101, a dataset of 101 human action classes from videos in the wild, published in 2012.

  5. 2022

    Fellowship and dataset prize

    In October 2022, the PAMI Mark Everingham Prize goes to Shah and his team for human action recognition datasets. ACM names him a Fellow in 2022 for contributions to human action recognition in video and leadership for undergraduate research.

  6. 2024

    An undergraduate mentoring award

    He receives the CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award in 2024.

  7. July 2025

    Directing UCF’s AI institute

    UCF names him the inaugural director of its Institute of Artificial Intelligence in July 2025.

  8. As of October 2026

    Directing UCF’s vision and AI institutes

    He is UCF Trustee Chair Professor of Computer Science and director of both the Center for Research in Computer Vision and Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

Sources and credits

Photo: vision.eecs.ucf.edu; Dr. Mubarak Shah's Homepage; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: vision.eecs.ucf.edu. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Worldview ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Research Experience for Undergraduates Proposal vision.eecs.ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. National Academy of Inventors Names UCF Computer Vision Pioneer as Fellow ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Chronological List of IAPR Fellows iapr.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. UCF101 - Action Recognition Data Set crcv.ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. UCF Computer Vision Team Receives Prestigious Computer Vision Award for Action Recognition Dataset ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Dr. Mubarak Shah Named ACM Fellow crcv.ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. The 35th British Machine Vision Conference 2024: Keynotes bmvc2024.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  9. Mubarak Shah - College of Engineering and Computer Science cecs.ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  10. UCF Launches Institute of Artificial Intelligence to Advance Research, Talent Development Across Disciplines ucf.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.