The guys pictured above have created something very special in the heart of downtown Mesa. They have rented a space and filled it with the kind of toys that attract Arizona’s hackers and tinkerers and called the place HeatSync Labs. The cost of admission to use 3D printers, laser cutters, machining and wood tools is a whopping $0! That’s right. The facility is paid for by volunteer members. Membership, which is completely optional, costs only $50/month. The 80 or so paying members cover the costs of rent, electricity and free wifi so that anybody can come and work out of the place and build whatever their heart desires – for free! The community of people who operate the place virtually 24-hours a day (official hours are 7PM to 10PM!) are also available to help people with their projects.
This past Saturday, I took my 7-year son to HeatSync labs and they were in the middle of an HTML5 gaming hackathon which ran from 10am to 10pm. The goal of the hackathon (which was open to the public) was to compete for building the best game possible in less than 12 hours. Contestants were randomly put into teams of 3 people each based on skills and worked together to build everything they needed, from graphics to Javascript, to deliver a finished game.
HeatSync labs is host to a number of events. This Wednesday, they have an Arduino Night at 7pm. They publish their events calendar here.
More Info About HeatSync Labs:
Web site: http://www.heatsynclabs.org
Address: 140 W. Main st. Mesa, AZ 85201
Facility Fee: Free and Open to Public
Membership: $50/month (optional)
Core Group of Operators/Founders:
- Jacob Rosenthal: @jacobrosenthal
- Erik Wilson: @wils0ne
- Luis Montes: @monteslu
- Will Bradley: @willbradley
- Blaine Bublitz: @BlaineBublitz
- Jeremy Leung: @uberschnitzel
HeatSync Labs is a great opportunity for Makers to build a local community, I only wish they’d open a sister location in the north valley.
We should ask @Hamid to convert some of his space into a HeatSyncLabs for geeks to play in?
I’d volunteer to help 🙂
I’m definitely open to it. How many people would be interested in the N. Scottsdale area?
I work in North Scottsdale as a young accountant that secretly wants to be a programmer so I would definetly be interested.
I work in Glendale, but could easily make it to north Scottsdale.
Heyhey! I was participating in the Hackathon I remember you and your very enthusiastic kid (which is awesome! Plant the seed early). Very Cool that HSL is getting some exposure!