Hunter Adams

Hunter Adams received a B.A. in physics from Cornell in 2015, an M.S. in aerospace engineering from Cornell in 2017, and a PhD. in aerospace engineering from Cornell in 2020. Adams’ Ph.D. was almost entirely devoted to hardware—specifically to building small spacecraft and the infrastructure for communicating with them. While building these spacecraft, he fell in love with electronics prototyping. Adams joined the Cornell ECE faculty in July 2020 where he now teaches laboratory design courses based on microcontrollers and FPGA’s. He also advises the Maker Club, a few project teams, and a large number of masters of engineering projects.

Adams likes to use engineering as the mechanism by which he explores his interests in lots of other topics and disciplines. He and his students have collaborated with researchers in plant sciences, neurobiology, veterinary science, animal science, ornithology, archaeology, oceanography, earth science, astronomy, art, and more. He builds things constantly, both by himself and alongside his students. He builds things because he believes that doing so is the best way to learn engineering, the best way to become a better engineering teacher, a great way to learn about topics outside of engineering, and because it makes him very happy.

Please see his website for descriptions of the things that he and his students have built.