Maze in a Field of Maze

Five acres of knee-high corn became an exercise in precision agriculture and student involvement recently with the promise of fun ahead the last two weekends in October provided by the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

A maze cut into a cornfield began as an exercise in student involvement and agricultural tourism for John Foltz, the college's associate dean for academic programs. Dr. Foltz says the maze has a familiar theme: “We cut the corn maze, it’s in the shape of Idaho with the counties being the maze part”.

Dev Shrestha, an assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering at Moscow, used GPS technology to plot out the maze that was etched into a cornfield.

The technology assigned 390 individual locations within the field where the path turned. A lightbar attached to a Lewiston Parks and Recreation Department mower signaled when the machine was on track and when it was off course using readings from as many as a dozen satellites. (Foltz) “We’ll have 35-40 students each night that will be running it, parking cars and taking money, and finding little kids who get lost in the maze.”

During the fall semester, Shrestha said, he'll use the GPS plotting as a class exercise. Students will use a four-wheeler to lay out the maze on Guy Wicks Field with colorful flags rather than a mower.