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When Max Wallack was six years old, he won in an invention contest which included a trip to Chicago. Unknowingly, this trip would expose him to a much deeper meaning in life and find his mission in life. During that trip to Chicago, they got lost and ended up on Lower Wacker Drive where he saw homeless people living on streets and beneath highways and underpasses.

Seeing their predicament, Wallack’s young mind felt sorry for them and since then has never stop thinking of how he can help these people.

Six years later, Wallack now 12, made that dream a reality by creating the “Home Dome,” his entry in yet another invention contest from PBS this year called Design Squad’s Trash To Treasure, the contest rule was simple: repurpose trash into something useful.

True enough, his “Home Dome” was constructed using plastic, wire and packing peanuts – trash if you may, which were well within the rules of the contest. This invention won for Wallack the top prize earning him $10,000 from the Intel Foundation, a Dell laptop computer and a trip to Boston where he will see his design built.

Wallack’s entry was chosen from more than 1,000 projects submitted.

The “Home Dome” is pretty much like a Mongolian yurt – a portable, lattice-framed, felt covered dwelling used by nomads in Central Asia. The structure also has a built-in bed which is perfect for homeless people whom Wallack wants to help. It also great for eco-minded individuals who enjoy camping and who feel like re-using trash instead of just letting them add up to garbage in landfills.

This great invention of Wallack would be a great solution too, for families whose homes are due for mortgage foreclosure as an effect of the global recession.

In spite of his success in his inventions, Wallack is still not sure if he wants to do it for a living. “I either want to go into biomedical engineering or geriatric psychology, my great-grandmother was 96, she had dementia. I spent a lot of time with her,” Wallack said.