Genomics research is increasingly important in agriculture and biotechnology. New advances in understanding genome function and, at the foundation of food systems and nutrition, interactions in complex microbiomes (microbial communities and their genes) have come from the generation and processing of 'big data.' Essential to applied genomics is knowledge of programming language for statistical analysis and interpretation of large datasets. This course will train students with fundamental skills for programming in R, the primary open-source language used in the agricultural and life sciences, along with and introduction to whole genome sequencing (WGS) and microbiome analysis.