Teresa Zbiciak

Teresa Z manages the C-SED Lab, a makerspace dedicated to cultivating innovative creators by providing the tools and space for experimentation, prototyping, and hands-on skill-development. In an era where knowledge and understanding are increasingly relegated to digital spaces, the C-SED Lab is a place where students can collaborate and construct elements for their projects in person, using a variety of traditional and modern tools. Teresa brings her enthusiasm and talent for sculpture, design, and workshop creation to C-SED, where she also maintains the tools and works with student staff to create a safe, welcoming environment for all. 

 

Sustainability and working to improve the environment is a matter of utmost importance to Teresa, which led her to complete a Master of Landscape Architecture degree here at U of M. During the course of her degree, she discovered C-SED and fell in love with Lab and found herself increasingly dedicated to the mission and vision of the Center. She is passionate about bringing people together for creative endeavors, and most recently is working with SEAS Landscape Architecture students to design a Floating Wetland Park for Friends of the Rouge to help improve the environment of a channelized section of river in Southeast Michigan, based on her Capstone research.

 

A lifelong experiential learner, she earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts in sculpture from Grand Valley State University and proceeded through an unconventional professional journey through the city curating art shows and leading tours, out into fields of rural organic farms both in Michigan and in Australia, facilitating workshops (for nonprofit professionals and middle schoolers building giant papier mache puppets alike) and back into the halls of academia where she refused to be contained into any one silo. She loves working with artists and engineers who are always cracking things open to see how they work.