Meet the People
Dev Shrestha
Assistant professor Dev Shrestha uses GPS and GIS technology in his work on precision agriculture. A year after joining the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, he put his expertise to work, translating 503 GPS points from a map to a 11-acre cornfield to form a maze.
Phil Kaufman
As a freshman studying agricultural systems management and agribusiness in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in 2002, Phil Kaufman took a farm and ranch management class. As a project, he explored developing a corn maze as a way to supplement a farm's income.
Before he graduated in May 2006, the idea took root with ag econ professor and the college's associate dean for academic programs John Foltz. Following graduation Kaufman moved to Washington's Columbia Basin, growing seed corn for Monsanto. A promotion took him to central California to oversee corn seed production there.
In 2009, the company's priorities shifted and Kaufman was offered a job with the company in Hawaii. That summer, his original corn maze idea grew into a plan, then some experimental plannings and a full-scale maze led by his brother Steve Kaufman and Foltz in partnership with the Lewiston Parks and Recreation Department. A record cold spell in mid-September 2009 ended that maze before it could open to the public, but the cold did not end the dream.
Later in 2009, Phil Kaufman chose to return home to Lewiston to establish his own farming operation near his family's. This year he put his corn experience into practice, leading the farming effort to grow a new corn maze in partnership with the college and the Lewiston Roundup Association.
Clark Gill
In June, Clark Gill, a University of Idaho senior agribusiness major, stepped into a new role: serving as the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences student corn maze chairman.
"I just asked if they needed help because I wanted to get involved," said Gill, whose family ranches near Fruitland, Idaho. "I thought it would be neat to help out."
As a friend of Jake Gisler and Mac Reynolds, two new alumni of the college who last year pioneered the corn maze project, Gill's volunteerism was a natural.
This fall, he will organize 100 students or more from the college to staff the corn maze, either handling tickets, running parking or helping out in the maze itself.
In June, Gill worked with professor Dev Shrestha of the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department to locate more than 500 GPS waypoints in the 10-acre cornfield when the plants were barely as tall as a boot.
He returned to the field Sept. 20 to see the corn as a field of mature stalks. "I think the maze turned out really well since we were using hand-held GPS units that were accurate to about 9 meters," Gill said.
Gill plans to complete his undergraduate degree in May, then continue on the grad school to earn a masters or an MBA. After that he hopes to return to his family's ranch and continue its cattle business.
Assistant professor Dev Shrestha uses GPS and GIS technology in his work on precision agriculture. A year after joining the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, he put his expertise to work, translating 503 GPS points from a map to a 11-acre cornfield to form a maze.
Phil Kaufman
As a freshman studying agricultural systems management and agribusiness in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in 2002, Phil Kaufman took a farm and ranch management class. As a project, he explored developing a corn maze as a way to supplement a farm's income.
Before he graduated in May 2006, the idea took root with ag econ professor and the college's associate dean for academic programs John Foltz. Following graduation Kaufman moved to Washington's Columbia Basin, growing seed corn for Monsanto. A promotion took him to central California to oversee corn seed production there.
In 2009, the company's priorities shifted and Kaufman was offered a job with the company in Hawaii. That summer, his original corn maze idea grew into a plan, then some experimental plannings and a full-scale maze led by his brother Steve Kaufman and Foltz in partnership with the Lewiston Parks and Recreation Department. A record cold spell in mid-September 2009 ended that maze before it could open to the public, but the cold did not end the dream.
Later in 2009, Phil Kaufman chose to return home to Lewiston to establish his own farming operation near his family's. This year he put his corn experience into practice, leading the farming effort to grow a new corn maze in partnership with the college and the Lewiston Roundup Association.
Clark Gill
In June, Clark Gill, a University of Idaho senior agribusiness major, stepped into a new role: serving as the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences student corn maze chairman.
"I just asked if they needed help because I wanted to get involved," said Gill, whose family ranches near Fruitland, Idaho. "I thought it would be neat to help out."
As a friend of Jake Gisler and Mac Reynolds, two new alumni of the college who last year pioneered the corn maze project, Gill's volunteerism was a natural.
This fall, he will organize 100 students or more from the college to staff the corn maze, either handling tickets, running parking or helping out in the maze itself.
In June, Gill worked with professor Dev Shrestha of the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department to locate more than 500 GPS waypoints in the 10-acre cornfield when the plants were barely as tall as a boot.
He returned to the field Sept. 20 to see the corn as a field of mature stalks. "I think the maze turned out really well since we were using hand-held GPS units that were accurate to about 9 meters," Gill said.
Gill plans to complete his undergraduate degree in May, then continue on the grad school to earn a masters or an MBA. After that he hopes to return to his family's ranch and continue its cattle business.