Ashley Brown spent much of his undergraduate degree - started in 2001 - actively avoiding involvement in the higher levels of union politics, preferring to stay within his department to fight for his peers: as a result he was a year rep for three years, becoming one of the most vocal students within the Department of Computing. As a postgraduate researcher, he now sits on the other side of the complaints about coursework not coming back on time...

In terms of club involvement, in 2003 he joined the RCS Motor Club, spending an unhealthy amount of time covered in oil and grease since then. He was been a regular contributor to Live! discussions since arriving at Imperial, but until 2006 took no involvement in the operation of the site.

With his undergraduate degree completed in 2005, Ashley remained at Imperial for a PhD, conducting research into the acceleration of computational science applications. At the same time he became more involved in the workings of the union, becoming more deeply involved in City & Guilds College Union and starting work on the Live! redevelopment project. He realised the potential to turn Live! around from its slow decline with the relaunch and took on the role of editor for 2006-2007. At the same time he accidently became chairman of RCS Motor Club and CGCU's Lord Mayor's Show co-ordinator, running it as the first Centenary event.

His involvement in these events and running Live! caused the transformation to a hack, with involvement in the ICU governance review, a place on ICU Council and general interference and vocal criticism of the morons running the place union officers.

In 2007 the revitalised Live! won a Guardian Student Media Award for Best Student Website.