Michael Bunting

Michael Bunting is the Assistant Dean for Research and Director of Research Development for National Security in the College of Engineering and Computing. With over 20 years of experience in the workplace and educational testing and assessment, Bunting is a senior research leader with an extensive track record of spearheading strategic planning for research, developing training, building infrastructure, and administering contracts and grants. He has a proven success record in obtaining extramural funding, including standing up three IDIQ contract vehicles from the Department of Defense ($92-million ceiling) and the Intelligence Community ($60-million & $25-million ceilings).

Bunting is a team builder with a history of bringing faculty, government, and industry partners together to solve public and private sector research challenges. He is the originator of a research program on cognitive training. He has developed many aptitude tests and assessments for the Department of Defense, including the High-Level Language Aptitude Battery (Hi-LAB), the Cyber Aptitude and Talent Assessment (CATA), the Computer Language Aptitude Battery (CLAB), the Defense Language Aptitude Battery 2 (DLAB2), and the Regional Proficiency Assessment Tool (RPAT). He co-founded a company around commercializing these instruments with startup capital from the State of Maryland and other investors. He has experience leading an organization in times of change, growth, and redevelopment and mentoring dozens of professional track research faculty from assistant to senior levels and undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students.

Degrees

• PhD, Cognitive Psychology and Statistics, Measurement and Methods, University of Illinois at Chicago
• MA, Cognitive Psychology and Statistics, Measurement and Methods, University of Illinois
• at Chicago
• BA and Honors Degree, Psychology, Biology & Chemistry, Loras College

Relevant Publications

• Novick, J.M., Bunting, M.F., Dougherty, M.R., & Engle, R.W. (Eds). (2019). Cognitive and working memory training: Perspectives from psychology, neuroscience, and human development. Oxford University Press.
• Campbell, S.G., Saner, L.D., & Bunting, M.F. (2016). Characterizing cybersecurity jobs: Applying the Cyber Aptitude and Talent Assessment Framework. Symposium and Bootcamp on the Science of Security. Pittsburgh, PA, USA: Association of Computing Machinery. 
• Atkins, S., Bunting, M.F., Bolger, D.J., & Dougherty, M.R. (2011). Cognitive training, mathematics, and the adolescent brain. In V.F. Reyna, S.B. Chapman, M.R. Dougherty, & J. Confrey, J. (Eds), The adolescent brain: Learning, reasoning, and decision making, (pp. 211-241). Washington, DC, USA: American Psychological Association.

Awards

• 05/2019 – 04/2022, Computer Language Aptitude Battery (Bunting, PI), DoD, $1.5M.
• 08/2019 – 09/2020, Computational Social Science (Bunting, PI), DoD, $1.2M.
• 10/2015 – 09/2018, Cyber Aptitude and Talent Assessment (Bunting, co-PI), DoD, $4M.

Professional Highlights

• Developing the first-generation Computer Language Aptitude Battery (CLAB) and Computer Language Proficiency Test (CLPT) for the USAF (2020)
• Developed the first-ever Cyber Aptitude and Talent Assessment for DoD (2017)
• Developed specifications for the Defense Language Aptitude Battery II (2012)