Ashley is Professor of Design Innovation and head of postgraduate research in the school of design at the Royal College of Art. His academic responsibilities include leading a group of over 100 postgraduate researchers across design disciplines in the school and the MRes in Healthcare Design with Imperial College. He completed a BA in Furniture Design at Nottingham Trent University and received his Master's from the RCA in 1992. His doctoral research on translocated making at the University of Technology in Sydney explored cultural transfer between diverse socio-spatial groups in a series of collaborative practice based experimental design projects. His research themes include innovation methods, design thinking, globalisation design, cultural transfer, experimental design, design pedagogy and design for safety with current funded projects on a future design identity for Huawei and a global design for safety foresight review for the Lloyds register foundation. Ashley has over 50 academic publications and outputs ranging from books and chapters to papers, reports and documentaries. He is a fellow of the design society and senior fellow of the higher education authority and is a peer reviewer for the AHRC and numerous conferences and journals. He currently supervises a dozen practice-based PhD candidates in industrial design, design engineering, innovation, cybernetics and design education applied in technology focus areas that range from the internet of things to artificial intelligence. He is also a visiting professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing supporting social engineering design. His industrial collaborations and funded research income value is over £1.6m. He has developed and led more than 20 commercial-academic partnerships. These include the transport and aerospace sector with vehicle interior innovations with Ford Europe, experimental aircraft fuselage and interior designs with Airbus Industries, integrated domestic transport energy systems with Sharp solar and McLaren, a full size space hotel with iGuzzini and Thales Alenia, and design identities with Huawei; in the telecoms area technology mutations with O2 mobile, future of the remote control with the BBC and social innovations in telecommunication devices for Hutchison Whampoa/3 Mobile; alongside projects with the Coca-Cola London Olympic pavilion interactions design, third generation of lighting innovations with Philips Lighting and innovative materials with Samsung.