adam j hartz

Senior Lecturer
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

contact

MIT Room 38-591
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 324-4391
hz@mit.edu (PGP Public Key)
https://hz.mit.edu or http://jdvnmytn7j73mydqy5rkdh2gcpkxdi2ke2ettlii34qclgcdbez77jyd.onion

basics

i am a senior lecturer in the department of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. my main interests lie in teaching engineering and computer programming, with an emphasis on problem solving and engineering design; in improving the way we teach these subjects; and in developing new means of leveraging modern technologies to improve face-time with students.

most of my work within the department has been with the development and instruction of 6.01 (an introduction to engineering from the perspective of EE and CS, with applications in robotics). in recent years, i have been involved with development and instruction of 6.009 (fundamentals of programming) and with a redesign of 6.003 (signal processing). i also developed 6.145, an introductory programming course that used to run over IAP but is now just available as an online resource.

outside of classes i teach, my most visible work is with CAT-SOOP, a programmable learning management system used in several subjects within course 6.

i am also an academic advisor for course 6 students, and i occasionally supervise m.eng or urop projects, typically related to education and/or educational technologies.

teaching

near future:

in spring 2020, i am teaching 6.009 with Ana Bell, Duane Boning, and Max Goldman.
in fall 2020, i expect to that i will be giving the lectures for 6.009 and running a recitation for 6.003.
my plans for IAP 2021 are up in the air, but i do not expect that 6.145 will be offered.
in spring 2021, i think it is likely that i will be teaching 6.009 and 6.003.

subjects (in order of recency):

awards:

students

current m.eng students: former m.eng students: if you are a current student looking for a UROP or an M.Eng in the areas of education and/or educational technologies, feel free to reach out!

software

the following are a couple of software-related projects i have worked on (at least the ones that someone else might find useful). they're not fully finished, but they are mostly usable.

personal

i grew up in rural Illinois (in the country near Princeton). my parents are both retired math teachers, and they currently own Anne's Antiques. my elder brother also teaches math, at Hononegah High School in Rockton, IL.
 
i graduated from MIT with a b.sc in computer science and engineering (6-3) in 2011, and with an m.eng in electrical engineering and computer science in 2012. if i could do it all over again, i would be 6-2; but i've been lucky to have had the opportunity to learn some of that stuff after graduating through teaching various subjects.
 
i now live in Lexington, MA with my trusty feline companion Stronger, whom i adopted from the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society in 2009. i keep myself occupied in my free time by playing and writing music, programming, reading, and playing video games. i also enjoy playing tabletop role-playing games (Dungeons and Dragons, Savage Worlds, etc).
 
i support Bernie Sanders for president.
 
i am a supporter of the Free/Libre Software movement, and i believe that more people should care about their right to have a private life, online as well as offline. for this reason, i try to use only Free/Libre Software, and to reject the use of tools created by entities that profit from surveilling and profiling their users (e.g., Google, Facebook, etc ...). students occasionally ask about how i do my computing, so here is a brief summary in case anyone is interested.

contact

the most reliable way to reach me is via e-mail, at hz@mit.edu. i do not have a facebook, linkedin, google+, twitter, gmail, etc. please note, though, that i view e-mail as a form of asynchronous conversation. please do not expect me to receive your e-mail (or respond to it) immediately. i try my best to respond to e-mail within one business day, but sometimes i may be faster or slower than that.
 
i appreciate it when e-mails are PGP encrypted with this public key (you can also download the key by running gpg --recv-keys 0xE179AD62 on a GNU/Linux system). if you do send me encrypted mail, please also include your public key so i can encrypt the response!