Thomas Sugar

Featured mentor, FURI

President's Professor, Barrett Honors College - Polytechnic

Thomas Sugar is the Associate Dean for The Honors College at ASU Polytechnic starting in 2019.  He is a professor and the graduate program chair for engineering and manufacturing engineering in the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University. He works in the areas of  wearable robotics to improve worker wellness and improve the quality of life.  His research focuses on compliant wearable robots using tunable springs and pneumatic muscleactuators.

He majored in business and mechanical engineering for his bachelor's degrees and mechanical engineering for his doctoral degree all from the University of Pennsylvania. In industry, he worked as a project engineer for W. L. Gore and Associates. He has been a faculty member in the former Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Engineering at Arizona State University. He received the Arizona State University Researcher of the Year in 2007. He is a ASME Fellow and IEEE Senior Member. In February of 2022, Sugar was named President's Professor.