Creative technologist Luke Steel plugs his laptop into what looks like a photocopier in the Garage Makerspace of the Georgia Cyber Center. The image of a starburst in a circle on his screen is suddenly being etched out rapidly on a sheet of acrylic inside the machine as a red light traces back and forth in a trail of tiny sparks.
It’s a laser cutter tracing out the design of a coaster, and it is only part of the Garage’s appeal, said Hacker in Residence Tony Carver. The real draw is the collaboration, discussion and new ideas and prototypes that the machines can bring to life, he said.
The Garage held a pilot workshop on Wednesday with a small group but will be hosting larger and more ambitious public events later this year, Carver said. It’s about bringing people together, “creating collisions, to use the innovation vernacular, so that good ideas can flow,” he said. “So it is…