A well-rounded professional; I believe he explained himself as a: "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-a-few". Never in my life have I met someone so knowledgeable- in EVERY way. Truthfully, I began to feel inferior in his shadow; but, he is so "aware" that he can sense your frustration. In response, he will continue encouraging your inclusion as frequently as possible.

​I really appreciate what you (and the culture you created at IDeATe) have done for me. I wouldn't be anywhere close to where I am today if you hadn't made the decisions you made to cultivate the open, genuinely collaborative, honest culture of the makerspace, and if you hadn't given the opportunities and guidance that you did.

This man is younger than I am, yet I've found his advice on life, design, engineering, making, community, culture etc. to be on another level. This could mean: a) I am underdeveloped professionally and personally -or- b) Zach is superman. The answer is (b). In short, if you need anything: a therapist, friend, employee, landscaper, designer, engineer, rapid prototyping, drinking buddy, or a last minute designated driver, this is your guy.

Kind, Passionate, Genuinely good guy, Went above and beyond on every item I asked about, Flexible, Intellectual, Not hampered by Ego. You went out of your way to help me out on numerous occasions and it left a positive impression. I always felt I could depend on you to be helpful, courteous and professional as you had availability.

Organization could be better. Interest in student work and education. Very good instructor and leader. Every student knew just how much you cared about them and their growth as a professional at all times whether you explicitly said so or not. You really brought the team together and inspired us all to lead in our own way.

A number of times I have met with you for your advice in professional capacities and you have always made time and been open, honest, and insightful with your advice. I felt that my success was important to you, something that is hard to find in management or friends. Working for you I felt I was respected (despite not earning it), and my input and growth in that role was valued. We've shared ideas, conversations and worked through problems together as equals, despite being a subordinate. As a student working on a number of projects, seeking your advice was some of the most relevant, insightful, criticism I have received.

[Needs to learn] to follow through in a timely manner. Such an amazing human being! Passionate, innovative, smart and so personable. Genuinely cares and is creative. All of my interactions with you, Zach, have [been] wonderful, even in those where we disagreed on the requirements and outcomes of the topic at hand. You are so collaborative and strive for the highest level in everything you do. You have been an example of the new generation of heart and soul in action.

It seemed like you spent a lot of time in your office juggling five tasks at once, which made it feel like I didn't want to interrupt you. This isn't your fault, of course, it was just the general sense I had that you were nearly constantly running to keep up with everything. That said, if I did interrupt, you usually stopped what you were doing to help me with my question. The bigger critique was that it seemed some systems were set up in a very complex manner which made them difficult to work with. [...] worrying at length about relatively minor details instead of focusing on the big-picture/greatest needs of the program.

I can NOT say enough about  how well, this individual connects with people. He knows when to lead, but more importantly when to take a step back. I've known and worked with PZach on several projects over the past decade. He has always been the MVP on any team. 

...you were the only individual (student, staff, faculty, or otherwise), who was not constantly trying to cover up or gloss over the imperfections of their creations. For you, it was the meticulous organization of [makerspace] management... Brutally honest about your own perceptions with the aim of getting uninhibited feedback from students on what worked and what ailed us - as there is an inherent dichotomy of signing up for limited time slots to innovate and create works of art. You able to encourage experimentation in an environment which was bordered by rules on procedural [etiquette] (around using machines, buying materials, signing up for time), the unrelenting repetition of teaching student after student the same thing, and the inconvenient physical space [...] being in a basement with limited access and a neighboring preschool. The simple act of chalking up tooling/machining errors as the cost of learning [thus eliminating the cost of any machine tool damages] was a huge relief to myself and others who were desperate to experiment but constantly weighed down by the cost of materials. In short, from the start, it was clear your goal was to foster a creative lab which would otherwise be constrained and boilerplate technical lab [...] You showed an intuitive understanding of safety for students around the machines, I think b/c you were as attentive to each student as you were to the management of the lab. When I visited CMU last, you were managing the Ideate program at CMU and it seemed the challenges of a diverse set of students and maker tools enhanced your adaptive managing style all the more.

You genuinely care. As a student, I've never met a staff member quite as devoted as you. You are the person that would willingly give your time away to help a student or faculty member when you were buried in your everyday work. It's a special quality - never lose that... I remember discussing with other classmates just how cool you are; how selflessly you're willing to help anyone. You made IDeATe what it is...

Zach maintains an understanding on the upcoming generations tendencies- good and bad. He is able to take this information, develop and apply solutions that improve instruction, communication, accessibility, and usability of various maker-tech/resources.

Keep bringing all of yourself to your work and your interactions with others. That is what wins them over. Strive for consistency and completion in all of your work. These are the things that give you an outstanding reputation beyond being just a really great guy to know. You have succeeded in making an impact on me because you are a stellar leader that represents the up and coming younger generation. Interacting with you at CMU made my time there all the much better. You are very inspiring!

There have been several instances in which you took a chance on me, or gave me access to a resource that you had no reason to believe I would be able to use successfully. For example, you encouraged me to take a crack at (a) lighting system (project), despite my never having soldered before or worked on any kind of similar project. It's ended being one of the most interesting pieces of my portfolio. That's representative of your generosity, and of the kind of culture you've cultivated at IDeATe.

He's gets what's needed done and it's extremely well executed. He gets what a makerspace is, the culture needed and how it should be run including maintaining excellent safety standards, training, etc for the space. He's not only spent time building resources for IDeATe but cultivating the maker community beyond. I think this is an important aspect of what he brought to IDeATe - a desire to engage within and beyond the institution to best consider how the space should be run and to learn from other spaces on campus and at other institutions to make IDeATe a well oiled machine.

I think you were getting there, but make sure you really try to balance work & your home life. It isn't easy. Also, don't feel like you have to do everything perfectly. You're human & we all make mistakes.

CMU will not be the same and my CMU career would have been very different without your presence in both dFab and Ideate. Thank you so much for always helping me and many other students bring their ideas into reality- and giving us the space to explore with the equipment and much more.

If there's any negatives about Zach it's that he overcommits to getting things done. But that's because he wants to make the space better and is incredibly enthusiastic about it. He was definitely under-resourced in IDeATe and that meant he faced a constant challenge in balancing the day to day of running the space with enhancements, improvements and optimizations to elevate it to where it needed to be.

I think, because of your often immense workload, you're hard to reach and inconsistent in your availability. This is understandable, but also the area in which I think there's the most room for improvement. We all need to strive to be the best version of ourselves, and the best version of you is one that can get your most important work done and still have time to respond to emails and get home.

Never stop caring the way that you do. You don't know how helpful this is to everyone and you may never see tangible results from it. However, that care is what makes our team so effective and makes our workplace culture better and this seeps into everything that we make and do. Diplomatically, you have to balance this care and dedication while "playing the game". Part of why you were so effective, from a student perspective, was because you didn't always follow the politics of CMU, and that was a good thing for us - but for your own sake, unfortunately, you have to do a little more.

Overall, it appeared that you never fully accepted the nature of your role as a manager, and still were too prone to becoming absorbed in sub-problems to the detriment of awareness of the overall scope of work. Basically, at the end of the day the core responsibility of your job *was* to communicate, and that is where you were weakest. There were many cases where you could have immediately delegated, or inquired for more information, or refused, or simply acknowledged, each of which would have kept the whole process moving more smoothly. Instead, you tended to put yourself on the critical path for everything, and then act silently, keeping everybody else in the dark. I have the sense this desire to work privately gave you freedom to follow your habits to over-optimize, and this led to many specific delays.

You're passionate about your work, dedicated, EXTREMELY hard working & go above & beyond what has been asked of you. You're pretty much an expert at setting up systems for the Labs/shops you've run, that make it easy for users to utilize the equipment they need to use. Working extra long hours (evenings & weekends) to help students & make sure their projects were completed on time + offering to help students outside your department to complete a project or access equipment. This shows how committed, passionate, hardworking & caring you are.

Diligence, your work ethic exceeds that of any I have known.

Generosity with resources and time, personability, creativity, professional insight and knowledge, adaptability, the ability to rapidly pick up skills, calmness under pressure, the ability to stay motivated despite setbacks and intense volumes of work. . The strongest leaders are those who are able to lead casually - without the need for a great deal of ostentation or displays of strength. You are an example of that kind of leader. You're also a font of knowledge in mechanical and electrical engineering and design, CAD, electronics, assemblies, etc.

It has been great working with you both at SoA and IDeATe. You have been an incredible collaborator and of great impact on the UDBS related projects – I think everybody holds you in very high regard. I certainly do.

You were the most approachable person I found at CMU. This is b/c you were engaged students on what you were working on to improve every day. For this reason, it was clear you whenever a machine was not working or material was not available, you were very open about why it was and how you were working to solve this problem - and it was apparent that your satisfaction came from satisfying the students' needs.

You have been and continue to be a wonderful person to know. I am so happy that we met, worked together for a while and still continue to have quality contact. Much heart!

[Great at] taking complex tasks, simplifying them, and then going on to get it done. [Needs to] speak up more, you're too QUIET!