Krithik Ramesh was trying to improve his score at a dance video game when he started thinking about how it tracked his motions and compared them to the perfect moves.

Then he started thinking about what else that technology could do, and after six months of long nights working, he had an idea to change how surgeons operate on the human spine.

“I was wondering if I could apply the same motion-tracking system to radiology,” he said.

Krithik, 16, this month won the top prize and $75,000 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where more than 1,800 teens from 80 countries presented their projects. He was one of about 25 Colorado students who won a local or state competition and qualified to attend this year’s fair, which was held in Phoenix.

A Cherry Creek High School student, Krithik had tied for first place in the mechanical engineering category last year for a project to reduce strain on airplane wings, and donated the $3,000 he won to install solar panels on schools with poor access to electricity in rural India.

“A lot of people were surprised, just the jump from planes to spines,” he said of this year’s entry.

Many neurosurgeons use fluoroscopy — a kind of continuous X-ray, or “X-ray movie” — to provide them an image of the spine, so they can correctly insert screws to stabilize it. Unfortunately, the technique exposes patients to a relatively high radiation dose, which carries its own health risks.

Krithik’s idea was to train a computer to predict how spines and the tissues around them move over the course of a surgery, so the patient would only have to get one image, such as an MRI or CT scan, before the surgery.

For the project, he used about 32,000 images to teach the computer, which then could build three-dimensional images of any spine given to it. He used augmented reality software and the Microsoft HoloLens headset to project an image over whatever the wearer is looking at — think “Pokemon Go,” but with bones instead of fuzzy creatures.

The idea would have to go through extensive testing to prove the information it gave was as good or better than the current standard of care, since, obviously, a science fair project couldn’t use actual patients. If it worked well enough for medical use, however, surgeons could see the augmented-reality images layered over patients on the table, allowing them to visualize where to place the spinal screws to avoid hitting nerves, blood vessels and other sensitive tissues.

About one-quarter of the students who compete in the Intel Science Fair in a typical year have created something that they could patent, like Krithik’s idea, said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science and the Public, which puts on the event. Many eventually start businesses rooted in their science fair projects, she said.

“Every year we get pretty extraordinary projects,” she said. “You want to invest in these kids.”

Krithik has always been driven to explore what he can do with science, said his dad, Ramesh Babu, who comes from a part of India where surnames typically aren’t passed down and children use their fathers’ first names. Krithik’s first project, in sixth grade, was trying to put solar panels on window blinds.

“That was just a fun project for him, exploring what he could do,” he said.

At that age, most of us are testing which potting soil will grow the tallest grass. But everybody has a different idea of a starter project.

His parents bought tools for the projects, like software and a 3-D printer, but Krithik has done all the work to figure out how to use it, Babu said. For example, when Krithik was in eighth grade, he got a certification from the Colorado School of Mines so he could learn how to use the software he needed for a project.

Krithik’s mom, Karpagavalli Kumar, works at Boeing and asked her colleague, Thomas Letts, to mentor the boy with his first aviation-related projects. Letts, who works in external product implementation, said Krithik came with “grand ideas,” and as a mentor he guided him to focus on a specific goal, to test his assumptions and to find experts when he ran into the limits of his acquaintances’ knowledge. He said he also urged Krithik to try a different field this year, following several projects related to jet wings and engines.

“He will do great things for mankind in his lifetime, and it will be interesting to see what path he takes,” he said.

On Friday, though, the next challenge was an Advanced Placement exam in comparative government, and then he could take a few weeks off before a summer fellowship in biomedical technology at the University of Trento in northern Italy. Then comes senior year, and hopefully one more trip to the science fair big leagues.

“I definitely want to compete again,” Krithik said. “It’s an experience. The people you meet there are some of the kindest and smartest you’ll ever meet.”