UT San Antonio is expanding opportunities for students and faculty to engage in real-world, high-impact research through a new partnership with the U.S. Army.
The university has formalized its first Intergovernmental Support Agreement (IGSA) with the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM), establishing a 10-year partnership that positions the university as a key collaborator in supporting the Army’s global installation operations.
IMCOM, headquartered at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, oversees the physical infrastructure and day-to-day operations of U.S. Army installations worldwide.
The new agreement enables the Army to leverage UT San Antonio’s academic expertise to help fill critical data analytics requirements.
“We are excited to partner with the U.S. Army to connect university expertise with real-world needs, creating new opportunities for our faculty and students through applied research and workforce development,” said Heather Shipley, provost and senior executive vice president for academic affairs. “Partnerships like this reflect our commitment to practical collaboration that delivers real value beyond our campuses.”
A long‑term partnership with national impact
As the first IGSA in UT San Antonio’s history, the 10-year agreement creates a foundation for long-term research and operational collaboration with the Army, extending the university’s impact far beyond the city worldwide. The IGSA will be managed out of University College, under the leadership and direction of Dean Jianwei Niu. Manager of Strategic Initiatives Tim Ball will serve as project lead to provide systematic coordination between IMCOM, faculty and representatives from across other colleges.
“This agreement opens the door for UT San Antonio to support the Army in ways that are multidisciplinary, data-driven and nationally significant,” Ball said. “The university has a deep bench of research expertise, and this partnership may ultimately support broader research initiatives that integrate expertise in areas such as artificial intelligence, environmental science, data analytics and geographic information systems.”
The IGSA functions as a master agreement, a mechanism that allows the Army to issue multiple task orders over a multi‑year period, effectively bypassing traditional, lengthy procurement processes. This streamlined framework accelerates collaboration and enables UT San Antonio personnel to begin work as soon as the Army authorizes a new task.
IMCOM has approximately 200 IGSAs with municipalities and public universities nationwide to address infrastructure services as well as research activities.
University College leaders say one of the most exciting aspects of this partnership is the access to real-world, high-value datasets it provides for students, particularly graduate students.
“As an institution located in the heart of Military City USA, UT San Antonio has a unique responsibility and opportunity to support the mission of the U.S. Army in meaningful, long-term ways. This IGSA deepens that relationship by creating new pathways for collaboration that benefit both the Army and our academic community,” said Brian Rendell, executive director of University College. “Working directly with federal partners on complex challenges prepares our students for the demands of the modern workforce while advancing research that has national significance.”
Leveraging data to improve environmental compliance and strategy
An initial task order under the new agreement focuses on environmental regulation compliance, particularly around the analysis of data related to levels of PFAS and other chemical contaminants in drinking water systems across military installations. The project involves integrating massive datasets from Army installations in the U.S. and abroad, and developing analytics, predictive models and interactive dashboards for IMCOM to support water mitigation efforts across dozens of installations.
The interdisciplinary team for this first task order includes the principal investigator Anthony Rios, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Information Systems and Cybersecurity and founding director of the university’s Center for Data Science. Co-PIs include Vikram Kapoor, PhD, Klesse Endowed Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management, Saugata Datta, PhD, the Dr. Weldon W. Hammond, Jr. Endowed Distinguished Professor in Hydrogeology and chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Wenbo Wu, PhD, the Graham Weston Endowed Professor and chair of the Department of Operations and Analytics.
“The Army’s environmental standards demand rigorous, data-driven solutions, and this first task order perfectly illustrates how UT San Antonio can contribute at a national and international scale,” Ball said. “By analyzing large and complex environmental datasets, we’re helping IMCOM strengthen regulatory compliance and improve decision making across dozens of installations. It’s a powerful example of how university expertise can directly support the health and safety of military communities.”
Another team will focus on a second task order to analyze over 70 datasets and propose process improvements for the Army’s environmental funding and risk models using data integration, cost research and performance trend analysis. Wu leads this task order as principal investigator; co-PIs include Rios, Rodrigo Velez, PhD, professor in the Department of Economics and Drew Johnson, PhD, PE, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management.
As additional opportunities emerge under the IGSA, Ball said, the university is poised to expand its support for mission critical challenges while creating meaningful academic and research opportunities for its students and faculty.
