Kate Sugden

Deputy Dean for Enterprise Aston University

  • Birmingham

Kate Sugden's research interests are in fibre optic sensing systems, fibre Bragg gratings and femtosecond materials processing.

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Three Aston University STEM pioneers shortlisted for Women in Tech Awards

Three finalists from Aston University shortlisted for prestigious Women in Tech Awards Two academics are up for the award which will be announced in October A degree apprentice has also been nominated in the category Three STEM pioneers from Aston University are celebrating after being shortlisted for the prestigious Midlands Women In Tech Awards. Aston University’s Reham Badawy and Lucy Bastin have picked up nominations for the academic category while Jessica Morgan has been put forward for the apprentice category for the awards. The Midlands Women in Tech Awards are an opportunity to highlight and recognise the ongoing contribution of women in the tech sector. The aim of the awards is to raise the visibility of women in the tech space and enable the next generation to ‘see it and therefore aspire to it’. Jessica Morgan is studying a Digital Technology Solutions apprenticeship with Cap Gemini and Aston University, with experience working on projects within the public sector. She is in the final year of her degree apprenticeship and has been balancing work, studying and volunteering, while being on track for a first class honours. Reham Badawy is part of the Undergraduate Teaching Team at Aston University. Her research work has used smart tech to detect and monitor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. She is a strong advocate for women in STEM and is a UK Ambassador for Women are Boring. Lucy Bastin has a Masters in GIS and a PhD in Urban Ecology. She is a senior lecturer in Computer Science and was recently on secondment to the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. She developed web-based biodiversity information systems that support accessible and user-friendly reporting by the international community against policy and conservation targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Professor Kate Sugden, deputy dean for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Aston University said: “We are delighted to see so many Aston University shortlisted candidates for the Women in Tech Awards. “In our eyes they are all winners and are great examples of our ongoing commitment to making significant contributions to the region and wider society.” Voting closes on August 20 and more details about the finalists can be found here: www.womenintechawards.co.uk The ceremony takes place on 7 October where the winners will be announced.

Kate Sugden

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Biography

Kate Sugden joined Aston University in 2004 as a Medici Fellow having spent seven years in industry and became a Senior Lecturer in 2008 and a Reader in 2014. In 2018 She moved to the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences as Deputy Dean for Enterprise and International.

Kate's main research interests are in fibre optic sensing systems, fibre Bragg gratings and femtosecond materials processing.

After her PhD and two years working as a research fellow Kate worked for ADC in Australia for a year transferring fibre Bragg grating technology into a production environment. When she returned to the UK she worked as a director for two fibre optic companies, first for Oxford Fiber Optic Tools, and then Indigo Photonics.

Kate's teaching interests lie in the development of courses that holistically develop a broad range of engineering skills. At the moment her teaching activities revolve primarily around work and study placements.

Areas of Expertise

Fibre Bragg Gratings
Physics
Optical Fibre Devices and Systems
Optical Sensing
Optics

Education

Aston University

PhD

Photonics

1996

Fabrication and Applications of Fibre Bragg Gratings

St Andrews University

MSc

Optoelectronics

1991

University of Birmingham

BSc

Physics

1989

Articles

Bragg gratings inscribed in solid-core microstructured single-mode polymer optical fiber drawn from a 3D-printed polycarbonate preform

IEEE Sensors Journal

This paper reports the first microstructured solid-core fiber drawn from a 3D-printed preform and the first fiber Bragg gratings inscribed in a fiber of this type. The presented fiber is made of polycarbonate and displays single-mode behavior. The fiber attenuation was the lowest reported so far for a POF drawn from a 3D-printed preform across a broad range of wavelengths.

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Femtosecond laser inscribed advanced calibration phantom for optical coherence tomography (OCT)

Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics XIII

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed rapidly and is widely used in different fields such as biomedicine and optometry. The characterization and calibration of OCT systems is essential when testing the system and during normal use to ensure that there is no misalignment or distortion that could affect clinical decisions. Imaging distortion is a significant challenge for OCT systems when viewing through non-planar surfaces. Here we present a new multi-purpose plano-convex OCT phantom which is designed to be used for OCT characterization and calibration as well as to validate the post-processing algorithm for the imaging distortion of the OCT systems.

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Laser detection utilizing coherence

Technologies for Optical Countermeasures XVI

Lasers are an unnatural occurrence, rendered almost impossible in nature due to the laws of thermodynamics. Thus, the presence of laser radiation is always accompanied by an intent for that laser such as sensing, targeting, range finding etc. Detection of laser radiation is therefore important as it may be a precursor to impending action.

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