Whitman’s DIVAS Program Builds Computational Thinking Skills in Future Scientists

This semester, Whitman College will complete its first full year as one of eight colleges and universities across the country that make up the DIVAS (Digital Imaging and Vision Applications in Science) Alliance. 

DIVAS is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded program that provides opportunities for students to develop computational problem-solving skills that are highly sought after in medicine, agriculture, research and industry. DIVAS specifically focuses on the ways that audio, image and video data can directly contribute to scientific research—for example, looking at color changes in plant images to track chlorophyll developments. 

The program includes a spring seminar, a five-week summer research internship and a fall seminar—and students may choose to earn one credit for each seminar.

Meet the 2025 DIVAS Cohort

The first DIVAS cohort at Whitman included four students: Kanye Barner ’27 (Biology), Abeer Janat ’27 (Mathematics/Pre-Engineering), Erfan Vaezpour Najafabadi ’28 (Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology) and Cedar Tatarek ’28 (Politics).

The spring seminar introduced foundational concepts in image analysis, where students designed projects based on their own interests—collecting various images and exploring color analysis within them. During the summer program, they spent the first two weeks strengthening their Python coding skills through guided lessons, then transitioned to pair programming to work on predeveloped research projects that applied their new skills to data analysis.

“Through DIVAS, I gained valuable experience in image analysis and data processing, skills that will not only make future research tasks easier but also expand the range of projects I can participate in,” says Najafabadi, who appreciated the program’s welcoming attitude to first-years and international students. “This experience helped me see exactly how, where and why coding is used in biology and chemistry, making the benefits much more tangible.”

For Janat, the DIVAS program provided a strong foundation for future Computer Science courses. 

“I knew I wanted to get into coding, and this seemed like a great chance to learn in a welcoming, beginner-friendly environment,” she says. “Learning these coding and problem-solving skills now is definitely setting me up for future internships, research or even jobs down the line.”

Currently Recruiting: DIVAS 2026 

Dalia Biswas, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Paul Garrett Fellow, leads the DIVAS program at Whitman. She was invited to join the alliance by Raychelle Burks, Associate Professor of Chemistry at American University and Co-Prinicipal Investigator of the DIVAS program. Biswas and Burks are both part of the Data Chemist Network at the NSF Center for Computer Assisted Synthesis at the University of Notre Dame. 

“The DIVAS program is intended for students who are early in the college experience,” says Biswas. “It is important to introduce students to coding as early as possible and to be able to build upon that exposure throughout their four years.”

Biswas will be recruiting students this fall for the next cohort, which will begin in Spring 2026. Interested students should contact Biswas at rokhsad@whitman.edu or 509-527-5953. The program does not have a GPA requirement and is open to most any student with an interest or a declared major in the natural sciences who wants to learn more about how computer programming and computational thinking can be applied within the sciences. 

Students who are accepted also receive some financial reimbursement for their participation, including small stipends for the seminars and the summer internship.

Biswas hopes to expand program participation significantly in 2026. In the future, she also hopes to become a Co-Principal Investigator, which could bring more funds to Whitman as a regional hub for the DIVAS program.