Mariana Ziku studied Sciences, History and Curation of Art in Greece (BA, MA, Dept. of Fine Arts and Art Sciences, University of Ioannina) and Digital Humanities in Belgium (MSc, Dept. of Computer Science, KU Leuven). She is currently a PhD candidate and research associate at the Intelligent Interaction Research Group, Dept. of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean in Greece.

Her research areas are in cultural heritage and human-computer interaction in arts and culture, with focus on the domain of intangible cultural heritage and technical research focus on crowdsourcing, participatory design and linked open data. She is a long-term research collaborator at Web2Learn and cofounder of the non-profit organisation Biennale of Western Balkans.