USF announces partnership with MacDill

The University of South Florida announced a partnership with MacDill Air Force Base.

The three-year partnership will give USF students access to internships, research projects, guest speaker and mentors. MacDill will “promote the education of future mathematicians, scientists and engineers” and offer its lab personnel to teach courses and develop programs where students could gain credits for working on defense laboratory research projects.

They also announced a $10 million agreement over five years with the USF Institute of Applied Engineering to provide “operations research, data science, wargaming, human dynamics modeling, rapid prototyping, subject matter expertise and conference support.”

“This partnership is exactly the type of collaboration we need to maintain superiority over near-peer adversaries around the globe,” said Col. Adam Bingham, the wing commander for the 6th Air Refueling Wing, in a news release. “This agreement will allow us to innovate and provide custom resources to the MacDill warrior.”

USF President Rhea Law said in the release that the partnership would be a “symbiotic relationship.”

“Our university has a lot to offer through our faculty expertise, cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art facilities, and MacDill Air Force Base has a wealth of knowledge and experience to provide to us as well,” she said.