The AI MIND Lab (Artificial Intelligence for Medical Innovation and Novel Discoveries) at UCF brings together computer science and clinical sciences to create intelligent, trustworthy AI for healthcare. Our research spans deep learning, multimodal data fusion, generative and foundation models, and explainable AI, with applications in oncology, cardiology, neuroimaging, pathology, and beyond. By combining cutting-edge computation with clinical collaboration, we aim to advance precision medicine and real-world patient care while training the next generation of AI innovators.
Pegah Khosravi, PhD
Associate Professor at University of Central Florida (UCF)
Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Department of Computer Science
Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine
Senior Deputy Editor of AI, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
GoogleScholarGitHubAhnaf Munir
PhD Student in collaboration with Prof. Shah and Prof. Tian, IAI, UCF
Kidney-VLM Project
Dannong Wang
PhD Student in collaboration with Prof. Shah and Prof. Tian, IAI, UCF
Kidney-VLM Project
Sai Karthik Nallamothu
MSc Student in collaboration with Prof. Bedi, IAI, UCF
OncoCertainty Project
PhD Student (TBD)
Computer Science
Focus: Medical AI
Thank you for your interest in the AI MIND Lab. Please carefully review the following before reaching out:
Due to data sensitivity and strict Data Use Agreements (DUAs), lab work involving non-public medical datasets is restricted to students formally affiliated with UCF. International or external students must first be accepted into a UCF program and onboarded through the appropriate institutional channels before any collaboration can begin.
Students from non-UCF institutions may only participate in projects involving public datasets or data they bring through their home institution, and must do so through a formalized research agreement between their institution and UCF. These collaborations must be coordinated with their primary supervisor and undergo full institutional review and approval.
Opportunities at UCF AI MIND Lab
I am recruiting Master’s and Ph.D. students in Computer Science at UCF to join the AI MIND Lab. Our program emphasizes cutting-edge research, strong methodological foundations, and high-quality publications. Ph.D. students are expected to graduate with at least two peer-reviewed conference papers (e.g., NeurIPS, CVPR, MICCAI) and two full-length journal articles in high-impact outlets (e.g., Nature, The Lancet, or leading field-specific journals). For detailed and up-to-date degree requirements, please visit the official UCF Graduate Studies page.
Master’s students may participate in the lab through a 3-credit Independent Study (6908), which provides structured research experience and direct mentorship. Although Independent Study is limited in credit hours, Master’s students are still expected to work toward at least one peer-reviewed publication as part of their research involvement.
At the AI MIND Lab, we value respectful communication, responsibility, and integrity. Students are expected to manage their time effectively, honor commitments, and respond promptly to maintain strong collaboration. Dedication, honesty, and professionalism are the foundation of our work, and we welcome motivated students ready to grow in a supportive and rigorous research environment.
Fall Admission
December 1: Final deadline for international applicants
July 1: Final deadline for domestic applicants
Spring Admission
December 1: Final deadline for domestic applicants
July 1: Final deadline for international applicants
GPU & HPC Resources at AI MIND Lab
At AI MIND Lab, we leverage UCF’s advanced high-performance computing ecosystem to power large-scale medical AI and multimodal learning research. Our primary resource is the UCF ARCC Newton GPU Cluster, equipped with cutting-edge NVIDIA V100 and H100 GPUs and 100 Gb/s InfiniBand networking that enables efficient large-model training and high-throughput experimentation. UCF’s HPC environment also includes the Stokes CPU cluster and a high-speed research network backbone designed for data-intensive workflows.
For storage, we rely on ARCC’s high-performance Lustre file system and the RStore project-based storage platform, both optimized for HPC-grade throughput, fast I/O, and long-term data retention. These systems support collaborative work, large dataset management, and seamless integration with HPC jobs. Secure College of Medicine storage provides dedicated space for IRB-regulated clinical and imaging datasets. Together, these UCF-managed computing and storage resources form a powerful infrastructure that enables our lab to operate at scale and support cutting-edge medical AI research.
Ongoing Projects
At AI MIND Lab, we are committed to advancing AI-driven medical research through collaborations supported by robust data agreements. These agreements ensure compliance with ethical standards, privacy regulations, and institutional guidelines, granting access to high-quality datasets essential for our research. Below are our ongoing projects, a brief description of their goals, and their associated collaborations:
Kidney Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis Using Vision Language Models: Developing multimodal AI systems to improve kidney cancer diagnosis, subtype classification, and outcome prediction. Collaboration: AdventHealth
Multimodal AI for Vocal Fold Pathology Detection and Classification: Developing multimodal deep learning models that integrate stroboscopic video, and clinical data to detect, classify, and track vocal fold pathologies. Collaboration: Weill Cornell Medicine
Automated Cardiac Imaging Interpretation for CHD: Building a multimodal AI system that analyzes cardiovascular imaging and generates structured and narrative reports modeled after expert cardiologists. Collaboration: West Virginia University Medicine Children's Hospital
Transformer Guided Implicit Neural Diffeomorphic Registration for Brain MRI: Developing a next-generation neuroimaging registration framework. Collaboration: Orlando Health
Longitudinal AI for Early Breast Cancer Detection and Tumor Evolution Modeling: Developing a multimodal deep learning framework that leverages longitudinal mammography to identify early imaging patterns associated with breast cancer before tumors become clinically visible. This work aims to support earlier detection and improve personalized screening strategies. Collaboration: UCF IAI Faculty
AI-Driven MRI Scanner Usage and Reliability Analysis: Developing data-driven methods to analyze MRI scanner usage patterns, protocol characteristics, and system performance using operational log data, with the goal of improving reliability, safety, and efficiency of clinical imaging systems. Collaboration: Nemours Children’s Health
Lung OncoVision: Multimodal AI for Early Lung Cancer Detection: Developing a foundation-model-enabled multimodal system that integrates radiology imaging, pathology representations, and clinical features to improve early lung cancer detection and malignancy-risk prediction. Collaboration: UCF IAI Faculty
Diagnostic Certainty in Multimodal Medical AI: Developing AI methods to study how diagnostic confidence evolves as information from multiple medical imaging modalities is integrated, with the goal of improving reliability and trustworthiness of clinical AI systems. Collaboration: UCF IAI Faculty
Top AI Conferences 2026
ICML: Jul 6-12 | Seoul, South Korea | icml.cc
AAAI: Jan 20-27 | Singapore | aaai.org
CVPR: Jun 3-7 | Colorado, USA | cvpr.thecvf.com
ACL: Jul 2-7 | San Diego, US | 2026.aclweb.org
Asilomar: Oct 25-28 | Pacific Grove, US | asilomarsscconf.org
AISTATS: May 2-5 | Tangier, Morocco | aistats.org
ICLR: Apr 23-27 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | iclr.cc
NeurIPS: Dec 2-7, 2025 | San Diego, USA | neurips.cc
IJCAI: Aug 15-21 | Bremen, Germany | ijcai.org
ECCV: Sep 8-13 | Malmö, Sweden | eccv.ecva.net
ICCV: OCT 19-25, 2025 | Honolulu, Hawaii, US | iccv.thecvf.com
MICCAI: Oct 4-8 | Abu Dhabi, UniteArab Emirates | miccai.org
MIDL: Jul 8-10 | Taipei, Taiwan | midl.io
ISBI: Apr 8-11 | London, UK | biomedicalimaging.org
AMIA: Nov 15-19, 2025 | Atlanta, USA | amia.org
ML4H: Dec 6-7, 2025 | San Diego, USA | ml4h.cc
EMBC: Jul 26-30 | Toronto, Canada | embc.embs.org
AIME: Jun 7-10 | Ottawa, Canada | aime25.aimedicine.info
AACR Annual: Apr 17-22 | San Diego, USA | aacr.org
Ways to Connect
You are welcome to meet with me during my weekly office hours across both UCF campuses. To ensure I can give you my full attention, please email to schedule an appointment before your visit.
Fridays (10:00 AM-3:00 PM) - Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IAI), Global Building, Room 319A. An open space for questions, new ideas, and the beginnings of research collaborations.
Wednesdays (10:00 AM-3:00 PM) - College of Medicine, Lake Nona, Office 410B. Ideal for discussions on projects, mentorship, and academic growth.
For virtual or ongoing professional connection, LinkedIn is my sole online presence. You are welcome to connect with me.