Hasti is in the research group of Jay Gore, Vincent P. Reilly Professor in Combustion Engineering and Associate Head for Graduate Studies, where he is mentoring 8 Ph.D. students, 1 MS and 1 BS student in combustion science. He has also served as a teaching assistant for several undergraduate (Thermodynamics-I, Thermodynamics–II, Heat transfer), and graduate courses (Numerical methods and Advanced Combustion).  In addition, Hasti has a perfect GPA of 4.0, and has published 19 conference papers.

In his nomination, Prof. Gore had this to say about Hasti: "The great thing about Hasti is that he always loves helping others, teaching and mentoring students. Mr. Hasti received excellent feedback from faculty and students on his teaching and mentoring skills. As a head teaching assistant, he improved the course curriculum significantly through laboratory experiments, best practices for standardized reports, workshops by bringing experts to the class on improving writing and presentation skills, and designing course projects by bringing his industrial experience into the class room to highlight the importance of theory and classroom training in the designing products for real-world applications."

He continued: "Collaborating, mentoring, networking, teaming, and enabling graduate students to shape their success are Hasti’s unique but routine activities. Hasti will be a highly successful teacher, mentor, and an inspirational leader for the next generation of Purdue doctoral students and beyond."