My name is Mohamed Al Mustafa Hassan, and I’m in my final year as an undergraduate Physics & Astronomy student at the University of Waterloo where I'm also completing a minor in Applied Mathematics, concentrating on fluids, heat transfer, and computational physics.

My academic journey began long before university. I've always been fascinated by the vastness of space and how I might one day get there. As I learned more about the history of space exploration and the methods we've used to build our space systems, I realized that I'll never be able to experience interplanetary space travel if we continued to do things like this. I decided to study physics over engineering in my undergrad because I believed it would provide me with the chance to understand the universe at its most fundamental level while having the freedom and background to explore other subjects.

Throughout my undergraduate studies, I've gained invaluable knowledge in science, philosophy, and life, and I've cultivated meaningful friendships I'll carry with me for life. Above all, it has shown me how to live life to the fullest and by embracing the idea of being a perpetual student—always learning and remaining curious. My second year of university marked a turning point in my journey toward becoming an aerospace physicist. It was then that I was introduced to scientific machine learning, sparking a fascination with its potential applications. I began to envision how I could harness this technology to design and build next generation propulsion systems to fulfill my childhood dream of going to space.

My research focuses on the intersection of space exploration, data-driven machine learning, and first-principle physics. This "triangle" of study stems from a lifelong wonder about what lies beyond and how humanity might one day reach it. This curiosity evolved into a purpose: to design and optimize propulsion systems that will carry us deeper into space.