Niranjan Pedanekar is a Principal Scientist at TCS Research and Innovation and heads the ‘Area 66’ Entertainment Research group. He has extensive experience in applied research in data sciences in domains such as Entertainment, Education, Social Media, Financial Services, Railroads, Manufacturing, Defence and IT Systems. He has several international publications and patents to his credit. He holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, USA.

Niranjan is a dabbler in theatre, music, football, quizzing and poetry. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Tendulkar Dubey Fellowship, annually awarded to five theatre artists all over India. He has written 16 plays including adaptations of eminent authors such as Franz Kafka and Anton Chekhov. Plays written and directed by him have been staged at international and national theatre festivals.