Rate My Professor Matthew Studley

Professor Matthew Studley is Professor of Ethics and Technology at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, and Director of Research and Enterprise in the School of Engineering. He previously served as Co-Director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, one of the world's largest dedicated robotics labs. Studley earned a BSc in Biological Science from the University of Sussex, an MSc in Parallel Computing Systems, and a PhD from UWE Bristol. His professional qualifications include Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS), Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society (Mem.RES). Throughout his career, he has bridged technical innovation in robotics with ethical considerations, advocating for responsible AI and robotics development to benefit society while mitigating risks.

Studley's research centers on the ethics of robotics and artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, human-robot interaction in real-world settings like smart cities, generative AI and machine learning, technological sustainability, and public policy engagement. He coordinated the EU-funded SciRoc initiative, which advanced public understanding of robotics via smart city competitions. He contributes to boards such as the Engineering Professors’ Council and euRobotics, and serves as Turing Network Development Award Lead at UWE Bristol. His influential publications include 'Is social norms marketing effective? A case study in domestic electricity consumption' (Harries et al., 2013), 'Designing ethical social robots—a longitudinal field study with older adults' (van Maris et al., 2020), 'Evolving behaviour trees for swarm robotics' (Jones et al., 2018), 'Onboard evolution of understandable swarm behaviors' (Jones et al., 2019), and 'Could a robot care? It's all in the movement' (Meacham and Studley, 2017). These works have shaped discourse on ethical technology deployment and swarm robotics behaviors, with hundreds of citations reflecting his impact in the field.