Elke Rundensteiner, Ph.D., program director of the Data Science at WPI, says the decision to add the Ph.D. program was made after the university received considerable interest in a doctoral program from students both at WPI and from other universities. Also, faculty are hearing from people in industry, government and academia that it's difficult to hire data scientists with the advanced skills, research experience, and multi-disciplinary knowledge needed to take on leadership positions in their organizations.