AGRICULTURAL SCIENTISTS WITH EXPERTISE IN WORKING WITH BIG DATA ARE IN HIGH DEMAND BECAUSE OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING, HIGH THROUGHPUT PHENOTYPING, AND PRECISION AGRICULTURE, THAT HAVE DRAMATICALLY ACCELERATED THE PACE OF DATA COLLECTION. IN FACT, THE NEED FOR WORKERS WITH SPECIALIZATION IN BIOINFORMATICS, BIOSTATISTICS, AND COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY ARE IN EXCEPTIONAL DEMAND FOR MANY DISCIPLINES. EMPLOYERS SEEK NOT ONLY SCIENTISTS WITH DEEP DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE IN THE LIFE SCIENCES AND SKILLS IN WORKING WITH BIG DATA, BUT ALSO THOSE WITH EXPERIENCE IN WORKING WITH REAL WORLD DATA, AND THE SKILLS TO COMMUNICATE AND COLLABORATE EFFECTIVELY IN TEAMS. HOWEVER, THE TRAINING OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE LIFE SCIENCES HAS NOT BEEN CONTEMPORIZED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF TODAY'S SCIENCES. TO HELP ADDRESS THE NEEDS, WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN UNDERGRADUATE LEARNING AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE THAT TARGETS STUDENTS WITH INTERESTS IN APPLYING BIG DATA IN THE CONTEXT OF AGRICULTURE-RELATED RESEARCH. WE HAVE DEVELOPED A NOVEL STRUCTURE THAT COUPLES INTENSIVE COURSEWORK WITH MENTORED RESEARCH EXPERIENCES. STUDENT LEARNING WILL BE STRUCTURED AROUND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING AND MENTORING AND INCLUDE NOT ONLY DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE IN BIG DATA AND THE LIFE SCIENCES BUT ALSO KEY SKILLS IN COMMUNICATION AND TEAM-WORK.