Mariana specialises in cultural heritage with a background in digital humanities (MSc). Her research focus is on the domain of intangible cultural heritage with expertise in open data, FAIR data, and presenting research results through data analysis and visualisation. Mariana’s research interests include crowdsourcing, semantic technologies, participatory design, open-access and human-computer interaction in arts and culture. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Intelligent Interaction Research Group, Dept. of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean. Mariana holds an MSc in Digital Humanities, Dept. of Computer Science, KU Leuven, and MA, BA in Sciences, History and Curation of Art, School of Fine Arts, at the University of Ioannina.

She is co-founder of the organisation Biennale of Western Balkans, promoting intangible cultural heritage and cross-border cultural cooperation in the Balkans. Mariana participates in research and development projects, with emphasis on the digital transformation of galleries, libraries, archives and museums.