ISLAMABAD: Yasir Tufail, deputy portfolio manager at NASA, has said to strengthen STEM education, schools or universities need to play a better role in terms of giving students hands-on projects.
Speaking on Pakistan TV’s morning show, ‘World This Morning’, Yasir Tufail said institutions need to have better labs and equipment and at the same time create opportunities where students can actually do an internship.
He said there can be collaboration within Pakistan or even with international partners as well or space organizations to enable students to apply what they learn in classrooms and also get hands-on experience.
Yasir Tufail said there is a need to inspire curiosity among students to bring them towards STEM studies or even science and space.
“We have to show them that there are amazing careers that they can explore,” he said, adding that he has started to persuade students in pakistan, especially in the rural areas, to come to stem studies.
Yasir Tufail said he had been fortunate to work on many missions, from sending satellites to space to supporting astronauts on manned missions, and each mission taught him to handle risk differently.
He said the primary focus with unmanned missions is to ensure everything works perfectly before launch, however when it comes to sending humans to space, the stakes become higher.
About solving complex engineering problems, Yasir Tufail said working on missions had taught him how to approach problems calmly and methodically.
“We go through integration and testing to kind of understand the system,” he said, adding that experience had taught him to focus on teamwork and collaboration, which is a key to managing risks successfully.
About Spacex, Yasir Tufail said people forget to realize that Spacex is a private entity, and that NASA actually has a contract with it to send astronauts to space.
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