Two young entrepreneurs — Aris Isaac and Kaydyn Mack — have taken New Tampa, Florida’s beaches by storm. And it all started with some cardboard boxes, an RC car, and a dream.
In 2024, Mack, then a fourth grader, entered his school’s K-5 STEM contest with a cardboard box attached to a remote-control car. He called it “Trash Robots Incorporated” and went home with a trophy about the size of him.
In fifth grade, it was a whole new ball game.
Teaming up with his “best friend since Pre-K,” Mack and Isaac took the original design up a notch.
“Last year, I created a trash robot and entered it into the Hillsborough STEM fair,” Mack told WFLA News. “This year, me and Aris wanted to improve the design and make it more compatible for beaches.”
Together, they created the ORCA: Ocean Robots Collection Administration. Their device, similar to Mack’s original prototype, is made of household objects: Cardboard, wood, and an RC car. This new iteration is decorated to resemble an orca whale, playing on its namesake and acting as a nod to what inspired the boys in the first place.
When they learned that, according to the United Nations, over 800 species of wildlife are affected by beach pollution across the globe, they wanted to take action.
“So basically, we created this project because we like helping people and animals because of all the trash we see on the beaches,” Isaac said. “And we wanted to make a difference because it’s been hurting our environment and the economy in many ways.”
The pair did not win the science fair this year but were still part of the festivities. And as they finish out elementary school, they’ve got their sights set on bigger horizons.
“The main goal is to get investors interested in ORCA so we can take him from a prototype to a real-life product,” Mack said.
To get their invention in front of potential leads, they’ve started taking ORCA out for test runs, driving it around Clearwater Beach.
The whale-shaped receptacle (which contains a heavy-duty trash bag) wears a sign that instructs beach-goers to drop off their trash.
“Hello, I am ORCA,” the robot communicates. “I am a trash robot. Please deposit your trash with me.”
The boys direct ORCA around the area to collect items that visitors may otherwise leave behind. Atop the orca’s box-shaped noggin is a small speaker, with one of the boy’s cheerful voices, summing up their mission clearly and confidently.
When someone approaches, the speaker announces: “I’d be happy to take your trash for you.”
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Header image courtesy of Hillsborough Schools/Facebook and Michel Rathwell (CC BY 2.0)
