Their design will make it impossible to tamper with bottles

What is the project all about?

Anish: Clamped Bottle Cap: A Novel Tamper-proof Bottle Cap Design is an innovative design that will make it impossible to tamper with bottle caps. Debarghya and I would notice a lot of people not discarding their mineral water bottles properly. We thought of coming up with this idea so as to minimise the tampering.

Debarghya: The design can also be used for bottles carrying IV fluids and other medical liquids. These will be single-use caps while those used for mineral water bottles will be multiple-use ones so the bottle can be used later for personal use but it will show that the seal has been broken once. You wont be able to cheat and repackage that bottle to be sold again.

How did you get to the International Science and Engineering Fair?

Anish: We had submitted five projects of which this one got short-listed and was an entry for IRIS (Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science) Science fair.

The IRIS fair is the largest science and engineering fair for innovative research based projects at the school and junior college level in India.

The scientific review committee selected our project and we won the first place at the fair.

After that we were assigned a mentor and had to attend special coaching sessions in Mumbai where we worked on bettering the design.

With this design we participated in the International Science and Engineering Fair at Nevada, where we won the second grand prize and have a minor planet each named after us.

What is a minor planet and who decides what to name it?

Anish: A minor planet is smaller than a planet but larger than a comet. It directly orbits the sun. There are over two lakh minor planets been discovered so far.

MIT Lincoln Labs discovered the two minor planets that have been named after us were. So they get the right to name them. Since Lincoln Labs was associated with International Science and Engineering Fair, they had offered this as a prize.

Did you expect to win?

Anish: Honestly, when we started off neither of us thought we'd get this far. But when we won at the national level, our morale got a boost and we were positive of doing well at the international fair.

Are you planning to market your product?

Debarghya: Not yet. We have applied for a patent for the design and are still waiting for it to come through. We haven't as yet thought about how to go about marketing it.

Could you tell us something about yourself?

Anish: I completed my higher secondary this year from South Point High School and am studying electrical engineering Jadavpur University. My father is a government servant and works with Food Corporation of India. My mother's a homemaker. I live in a joint family with my grandparents and uncle and aunt and a cousin who works as a tax analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Debarghya: Anish and I have been classmates. I'm also studying electrical engineering at Jadavpur University. My mother is a homemaker and my father is in the medical goods business.