Mars Ashton is an award-winning Indie Game Developer and Director/Assistant Professor in Game Art at Lawrence Technological University. He has been instrumental in establishing the program's course competencies and content, has achieved international recognition through press, conferences and exhibitions, and has developed "gamedev" culture throughout southeast Michigan via meetups and events. Focusing on a project-oriented curriculum, he teaches studio courses with an emphasis on networking and prototyping for the purpose of building communication skills, professional relationship and creating a cooperative and collaborative learning environment.