Washington ? A 16-year-old California boy won a premier high school science competition Monday for his innovative approach to an old math problem that could help in the design of airplane wings.

Michael Viscardi, a senior from San Diego, won a $100,000 college scholarship, the top individual prize in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

Viscardi said he’s been home-schooled since fifth grade, although he does take math classes at the University of California at San Diego three days a week. His father is a software engineer and his mother, who stays at home, has a Ph.D. in neuroscience, he said.

Viscardi tackled a 19th century math problem known as the Dirichlet problem, formulated by Lejeune Dirichlet. The theorem Viscardi created to solve it has potential applications in the fields of engineering and physics, including airplane wing design. He worked on it for about six months with a professor at UCSD.

Anne Lee, 17, a senior at Phoenix Country Day School in Paradise Valley, Ariz. and Albert Shieh, 16, a junior at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Ariz., shared the $100,000 top prize in the team category. They improved computer technology that could help locate the genetic roots of some inherited diseases like Alzheimer’s, autism and bipolar disorder.