In a building with a striking resemblance to a shipping container lies one of ASU's least known resources: TechShop, a cooperative workspace that houses a vast array of machining and engineering equipment that is absolutely free for ASU students to use.
"Here we have three 60-watt CO2 lasers," Lauren Copley, one of the specialists running TechShop, said while pointing at a small work station.
In addition to the lasers, the facility houses 3D printers, plasma cutters and injection molders among a slew of other toys for the tech savvy. In order to use them, students either need to show the staff that they already have the skills to operate these machines, or take a class at the shop.
"I started out just taking the classes for fun," Usamma Amjad, a chemical engineering graduate student at ASU, said. "I like to build stuff in my free time."
He then realized the value the shop offered in academics when he was working on his graduate project on brain implants.
"So instead of buying from the ASU machine shop, which would have cost us about $2000 per iterative mold to make our brain implants, we were able to print them all here for $0.75 for all our iterations," Amjad said.
Since then, Amjad has expanded his knowledge of the tools available at TechShop and started assembling the pieces of an engraving business called N-grave.
Amjad sat poised over the laser cutter holding a leveling tool against a glass tumbler. The laser etched the word "Mafia" around the circumference of the glass.
N-grave mainly fills custom orders for small items like these, but Amjad said he sees the work done by N-grave at TechShop as just the beginning.
"We actually bought a laser recently, and we plan on expanding," Amjad said.
In addition to budding businesses, TechShop is also fertile ground for the art scene.
"I'm an artist, so that's my starting point for being interested in any of the skills sets that are needed in the shop," Josiah Copley, who runs the TechShop front desk, said.
The facility houses equipment for staining glass, producing clothing and cutting patterns out of sheet metal.
However, ASU does not advertise TechShop nearly as much as many would like.
"It's unfortunate, we're often frustrated by the lack of marketing," Lauren Copley, Josiah Copley's wife and TechShop employee, said. "A lot of students don't realize it's already paid for in their tuition."
In comparison, the tools offered by the Arizona Science Center's Create Space come at a cost of fifty dollars per month.
"If (ASU) continues pushing innovation, we can get a culture of creative people thriving in Arizona, if that happens then it could become a new Silicon Valley," Harry Ian, a craftsman working at TechShop, said.
TechShop, located in downtown Chandler, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to midnight, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every other day.
Reach the reporter at sdeadric@asu.edu or follow @deadrick_sam on Twitter.
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