Central Oregon inventors would like to create businesses that generate jobs, and some have started brainstorming ideas to reach that goal.

“A lot of people spend time looking for jobs,” Carlos Lovizzaro, director of the Northwest Inventors Group, told about 30 people who attended the group’s monthly meeting Tuesday. “We need to break this vicious cycle and go in the right direction … not looking for jobs, but inventing companies.”

To help stimulate invention that could lead to future jobs, members plan to work with local high school robotics teams; they have set up free classes on the use of Arduino microcontrollers; and they would like to create a community workshop, called a Makerspace, where inventors would have access to equipment and tools to turn their ideas into reality.

Makerspaces are part of the Maker Movement, an effort by members of a community to share tools and knowledge to make things, Dennis Corey told the group. Makerspaces have been created across the country.

“It goes beyond inventing or electronics or commercializing ideas,” he said. “It’s about the sheer joy of doing stuff, creating things and tearing things apart to see how they work.”

Makers have turned VCRs into automatic cat feeders, or used electric vehicle parts to create backup home generators, but their inventions can also give birth to companies.

Corey started following the movement, he said, because he thought makers could be both customers and helpers, assisting him with research and development ideas for his optical sensor startup company, PulsedLight.

“If you’re a maker, there’s a lot of times when you want to make something, but you don’t have the tools to make it,” he said, referring to equipment like 3-D printers.

He said a Makerspace would solve that problem and also minimize individual investment for expensive equipment.

Robert Kieffer, board member of the Tech Alliance of Central Oregon, said community involvement is key to get a Makerspace off the ground.

“You can plan all you want, but what you really need to do well is listen to what the community is interested in. And more importantly, what the community has energy for,” he said.

Mike Aller, a member of the inventors group, said that for an inventor, a Makerspace would be a do-it-yourself Disneyland.

“I have a whole head of new ideas,” he said. “(But) I personally don’t have access to laser cutter and plasma cutters.”