Kyle Bunch

Senior Engineer
Washington Office

Education

Ph.D. in electrical engineering, University of Utah; ME in electrical engineering, University of Utah; B.S. in electrical eng and comp sci, University of Colorado at Boulder

Overview

Kyle Bunch is a senior engineer at RAND specializing in technology and policy for problems of national security. Previous to RAND, he has served as a Senior Science Advisor to the U.S. Department of State in Arms Control and Counterterrorism, and as a technical subject matter expert within the Microsystems Technology Office at DARPA working for Booz-Allen Hamilton. He has worked as a researcher in two DOE's laboratories: Sandia National Laboratories and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  

In 2014 Bunch was nominated by the State Department to serve as science representative on a White House OSTP subcommittee on Science and Technology for Countering Explosive Devices. He has also served on several subcommittees under the Joint Program Office for Countering IEDs. His work at the State Department resulted in a Meritorious Honor Award for contributing to its role in countering the global threat of IEDs.

Bunch is a Fulbright Scholar and a Registered Professional Engineer holding the degrees of Ph.D., DEE, and ME all in electrical engineering from the University of Utah and a BS in computer science and electrical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the past Chair for the IEEE-USA Government Fellows Committee, and a  member of the IEEE-USA Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems Policy Committee, and past Utah Section Chair of the IEEE. 

Research Focus

Previous Positions

Technical Consultant/SME to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Booz-Allen Hamilton); Expert Consultant, United States Department of State, Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT),; Senior Research and Development Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Battelle); Member of the Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories; Research Assistant Professor, University of Utah

Recent Projects

  • Exploring the use of robust decision making (RDM) to improve the robustness of deep learning algorithms in autonomous systems
  • Innovative approaches to space situational awareness and orbital risk management
  • Operational assessment of quantum apertures
  • Risk assessment of reinforcement learning systems

Selected Publications

YK Chen, KJ Bunch, "The DARPA Foundations Required for Novel Compute Program (FRANC)," Government Microcircuit Applications & Critical Technology Conference, 2020

S.A. Johnson, D.T. Borup, J.W. Wiskin, M J. Berggren, M.S. Zhdanov, K.J. Bunch, R. Eidens "Application of Inverse Scattering and Other Refraction Corrected Methods to Environmental Imaging with Acoustic or Electromagetic Energy," in G. Delic and M.F. Wheeler, Next Generation Environmental Models and Computational Methods, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 1997

R.H. Olsson, K.J. Bunch, C. Gordon, "Reconfigurable Electronics for Adaptive RF Systems," IEEE Compound Semiconductor IC Symposium (CSIC), 2016

B. Epstein, R.H. Olsson, K.J. Bunch, "Arrays at Commercial Timescales: Addressing the Development and Upgrade Costs of Phased Arrays," Proceedings of the IEEE Radar Conference (RADARCON), 2018

KJ Bunch, "Approaches for modeling electron beam/electromagnetic interaction and their connection to distributed feedback lasers," SPIE Journal of Nanophotonics, 2013

KJ Bunch, "The Use of Homomorphic Encryption Methods Combined with Field Programmable Gate Array Hardware for Information Barrier Design," Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, 2013

KJ Bunch, RW Grow, "The Helically-Wrapped Circular Waveguide," IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices , 1987

Honors & Awards

  • Meritorious Honor, US Department of State
  • Recognition for work to counter IEDs, Bureau of Counterterrorism, US Department of State
  • Recognition for Service as Publications Chair, IEEE 2008 Nanotechnology Conference, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers