Ashton joined the Bionics institute in 2021 after completing a Masters degree at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute investigating the effect of the host inflammation response on the delivery of light for optogenetic stimulation.

He is part of the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) team investigating the recently discovered Evoked Resonant Neural Activity (ERNA) and its potential for automated and adaptive DBS programming.

Prior to joining the bionics institute, Ashton worked on the development of a laparoscopic surgical simulation device at the Canterbury District Health Board.