Techies find a new space

Dinesh Jayasuriya and Dr Suneeti Rekhari are running Hackerspace workshops in in Brimbank Pic Marco De Luca

Brimbank tech heads will soon have a new way to learn and develop ideas, with the launch this week of the Brimbank Hackerspace.

The brainchild of local engineer and technology enthusiast Dinesh Jayasuriya, the Hackerspace will be a meeting place for anyone interested in tech to come and discuss their ideas and learn off each other.

“At it’s simplest it is just a place for people interested in technology to meet, but from that simple definition a lot of things are possible,” Mr Jayasuriya said.

“People will come along, support each other and learn from each other, and the benefits are quite wide.”

The Hackerspace concept is well known in the US, and a similar meeting runs in Footscray already. Mr Jayasuriya said the benefits of setting up a group in Brimbank were quite wide.

“Local businesses, council, even schools, if they want some specialist knowledge there is a single group they can go to,” he said.

“We’ve had interest from the local universities, who are aware of the concept, and we’re hoping to get the secondary schools involved to help students who may be interested in further study in engineering or IT.

“Hopefully if we can get this group up and going it will give birth to some new ideas and innovation.”

The first meeting will be at the Brimbank Community and Civic Centre on October 29, from 11am.

Details: brimhack@googlegroups.com or www.facebook.com/brimhack/