Education
Master of Engineering in Computer Science
Outstanding Project of the Year Award
Bachelor of Arts in Physics
Dean's List, six semesters
National Society of Collegiate Scholars
Study Abroad, Madrid, Spain
Experience
Principal Software Engineer & EdTech Innovator, Harvard University — 2022 to Present
Leads a team of EdTech Software Engineers tasked with improving Harvard
courses through pedagogy-focused educational tools.
Manages the concept, design, development, rollout, and scaling of many
projects while reviewing and delegating work, acting as a cross-team
liaison, and expert in web app development and pedagogy in higher ed.
Example current projects include the Immersive Classroom,
a supercharged video player that leverages AI to create engaging asynchronous course content from recorded hyflex classrooms,
Gather Study Lounge,
an interactive online space for student interaction and collaboration,
and Harvard Hello,
an all-in-one self-service course management tool that allows faculty to sign up for trainings, get support, migrate course content, and install LTI apps.
Also updates and maintains existing tools that are used by all ~1900 Harvard Division of Continuing Education courses, professional
development programs, and crimson summer academy courses.
Dean's Champions of Excellence Award, Nominee, 2023
HILT Learning Design Affinity Group (Co-chair), 2023 to 2024
Harvard AI Futures Working Group, 2023 to 2024
Party Planning Committee for Teaching and Learning, 2022 to 2024
DCE Dean's Council on Employee Experience, 2023 to 2024
Harvard Committee for Employee Experience, 2022 to 2023
Inclusive Leadership for a Diverse Workplace, Harvard 2024
The Positive Workplace: Building Employee Engagement and Satisfaction, Harvard, 2023
Becoming a Leader: Developing Your Style and Making Sound Decisions, Harvard, 2023
Universal Manager Training, Harvard, 2023
Senior Software Engineer, Harvard University — 2018 to 2022
Collaborated with teaching teams and course designers at Harvard's Division of Continuing Education to design
and build instructional technology tools and scale existing edtech. Projects included algorithms to identify
students at risk, analytics dashboards for faculty, swipe-in automated attendance, and tools for Zoom. Each
semester, Abrams' educational tools were used by hundreds of Harvard courses: ~100 Harvard courses in Fall 2020,
~550 in Spring 2021, and more than 700 in later semesters.
Dean's Champion of Excellence Award, Finalist, 2022
Dean's Award for Excellence in Innovation, 2020
Division of Continuing Education Above and Beyond Award, 2019
Harvard Remote Work Committee, 2020 to 2022
Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee, 2019 to 2022
The Positive Workplace: Building Employee Engagement and Satisfaction, 2022
EdTech Consultant, Berkman Klein Center — 2021
Provided insight and audits the code and design of Threads,
a custom pseudonymous chat platform for classes.
Specifically focuses on scalability,
LTI integration,
usability for faculty and students,
and thinking of new ways the platform could be used to improve
courses.
Instructional Technology Fellow, Harvard University — 2016 to 2018
Worked directly with faculty and teaching teams, developed a suite of instructional technology tools, built
authentication and authorization frameworks for Harvard's JupyterHub and Virtual Desktop environments, and
created Inclass - the Harvard EdTech App Store.
Diversity and Inclusion Committee, 2016 to 2018
Edtech Developer & Consultant, Cornell University — 2015 to 2019
Built a drag-and-drop robot programming platform allowing students to program Baxter, an industry-grade
educational
robot. Created curriculum for a middle-school summer program that taught students programming and robotics
through
hands-on projects that utilized the programming platform. Co-taught three iterations of the summer program with
Prof.
Ross Knepper at Cornell University through the NY 4-H organization. Actively worked at Cornell through Fall
2015,
collaborated and led summer programs each following summer.
Teaching
Technology Field Expert, Harvard University — 2023
Sat as an web app and web development technology expert for two DGMD E-599 (Digital Media Capstone) panels, working with degree candidates on their capstone projects. Gave productive product feedback, focusing on technology and implementation, design and accessibility, and project management and prioritization.
Guest Lecturer, Harvard University — 2020
Led classes for DGMD S-61 (Working with Educational Technologies), a new EdTech course at the Harvard Division
of Continuing Education. Guest lectures included background on EdTech, LTI, SCORM, and information on developing
Canvas-integrated EdTech. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the course was also offered online, so part of my
work also included video content creation, editing, and production.
Summer Program Instructor, Cornell University — 2015 to 2019
Taught a robotics summer program for middle and highschool students from schools that lacked resources for
technical courses. Led the program in 2018 and co-taught in 2015, 2016, 2017, and since 2018. Collaborated with
the New York 4-H foundation, who offered the program through their residential summer college course list.
Program Coordinator, Hawaii Leadership Academy — 2007 to 2015
Coordinated sixteen week-long leadership programs teaching interpersonal skills to foster children and victims
of physical or substance abuse. Designed itinerary and curriculum for up to 120 students per program and
facilitated academic, team building, and goal setting workshops.
Instructor, University of Hawaii — 2015
Designed and taught Exploring Physics through Game Design (ENR4500), a summer course where students
learned different physics concepts while developing seven educational computer games. Created the educational
technology and curriculum for lectures, coding projects, and physics labs.
Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor, Cornell University — 2012 to 2015
Led seven semesters of recitation sessions, physics labs, exam preparation workshops for multiple different
introductory physics courses and labs while also doing one-on-one tutoring for undergraduate physics students.
Cornell Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, 2014
After School Program Coordinator, Ithaca City School District — 2014
Created and co-taught two ten-week after school programs: one helping students publish their own novels in the
school library and one promoting engineering and science skills through hands-on projects, a program done in
conjunction with Odyssey of the Mind. Taught sessions and managed funding and curriculum in a team of four.
Conference Sessions Facilitated
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Building Trans-Affirming EdTech: 10 EdTech Changes that Uplift Trans & Nonbinary Students
InstructureCon 2024
Calling technologists and developers to join Gabe Abrams (they/them), a trans nonbinary edtech developer on their
mission to build technologies that affirm and uplift trans and nonbinary faculty, staff, and students. They will
introduce 10 specific and actionable ways to choose and create edtech that builds trust and models affirmation.
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Getting Fancy with the Zoom API: Automate Zoom Classes and Events at Scale
Harvard IT Summit 2024
Watch live demos of how DCE automatically sets up thousands of Zoom classes each year, including class and section Zoom
meetings that always have secure and accessible meeting settings, “in case of emergency” Zoom spaces for covid pivots
and inclement weather, and “study lounge” Zoom meetings that students can use for socials and project work. We’ll also
take a look under the hood, giving participants a deeper technical understanding of what tools and libraries are
required to create Zoom automations (spoilers: it’s easier than you think!). Finally, we’ll wrap up by connecting the
two sections so participants will leave with 1) a peek into DCE’s Zoom automations, 2) an understanding of how to build
your own automations with the Zoom API, and 3) a list of concrete examples of API-based automations that we use at DCE.
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Preserving the Magic: How HBS and DCE Reimagined Online Learning
Harvard IT Summit 2024
Description
When at their best, classrooms feel magical, as instructors and students connect with one another and draw on their
subject expertise to engage on issues of the day. Both HBS and DCE set out to recapture this magic by reimagining what
is possible in online education. This presentation will showcase two online learning platforms that push the limits of
technology: HBS’s Live Online Classroom, a synchronous learning environment designed to replicate the dynamic nature of
HBS’s traditional classrooms, and the DCE’s Immersive Classroom, a supercharged course video player that dynamically
auto-generates asynchronous activities for HyFlex courses based on what happened in the live class. In this session,
we’ll share demos of our learning experiences as well as the principles and approaches we took to get there.
Presenters
Gabe Abrams, Principal Software Engineer and EdTech Innovator, Division of Continuing Education, Faculty of Arts and
Sciences
Dustin Hilt, Director, HBS Live Online Classrooms, Information Technology, Harvard Business School
Karina Lin-Murphy, Associate Director of Course Design and Pedagogical Innovation, Christensen Center, Harvard Business
School
Adrienne Phelps-Coco, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Division of Continuing Education, Faculty of Arts and
Sciences
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New Tools for Online Teaching: Study Lounge & Immersive Classroom
Harvard Summer School Orientation 2024
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Nurturing Human Connection in AI-Enhanced Learning Environments
HILT Conference 2023
While AI can enhance learning experiences, it is the human touch that brings empathy, emotional support, and
personalized guidance to students. Through group discussions centered around case studies, we examine the risks and
rewards of specific AI enhancements to explore the following key themes:
How AI can complement and amplify student-educator relationships and peer-to-peer interactions
Strategies for integrating AI technologies while maintaining a healthy balance between technological advancements and
the human element
Equity, inclusivity, and student agency in AI-driven educational settings
Leveraging AI as a tool to support educators in their interpersonal interactions and promote student engagement
Featuring:
Greg Kestin, Associate Director of Science Education; Lecturer on Physics (FAS)
Nicole Mills, Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures; Director of Language Programs for French, Italian
and Portuguese (FAS)
Adrienne Phelps-Coco, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning (DCE)
Facilitators:
Gabe Abrams, Principal Software Engineer and EdTech Innovator (DCE)
Jascha Smilack, Director of HarvardX Courses (VPAL)
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Creating Community with Asynchronous & Synchronous Students
DCE Instructor Development 2022
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Pandemic Problem-solving: Showcasing Tech Solutions to Teaching Challenges
VPAL Summit 2021
Pandemic Problem-solving: Showcasing Tech Solutions to Teaching Challenges
Presenters:
Gabe Abrams, Senior Software Engineer (DCE)
Annie Rota, Director, Academic Technology Group (FAS, HUIT)
Ian Tosh, Assistant Director of Educational Technology (HKS)
Although the pandemic has brought entirely new teaching challenges and exacerbated long-standing problems, it has also
been a catalyst for creative uses of technology. In part 1 of this session, we showcase tech-based solutions to
challenges we've all faced during this pandemic. Stay for part 2 for an opportunity to break into smaller interest
groups to explore solutions to the teaching challenges you're facing in your own work.
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How Our LTI App Store Made the COVID Online Transition a Snap
InstructureCon 2020
We gathered Harvard faculty and staff to build an open-source LTI App Store that lets instructors find/install apps,
gives technologists control over app installation permissions, and eases the load on support teams. This made switching
hundreds of courses online for COVID-19 easy: instructors installed their own edtech.
https://www.instructure.com/events/2020/canvascon?wchannelid=nuemzoxgac&wmediaid=z5ojzab7xd
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An LTI App Store: How we Designed, Built, and Deployed it to AWS
Harvard IT Summit 2020
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Effortlessly Build LTI Apps with CACCL, DCE's Canvas Library
HUIT Tech Talk Series 2020
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Building Suites of Education-focused LTIs
Florida International University 2019
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Making Peer Learning Accessible
Harvard Initiative for Teaching & Learning 2019
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Learning Engineering: Evidence-Based Strategies for Continuous Learning Outcome Improvement
UPCEA 2019
The book Breakthrough Leadership in
the Digital Age: Using Learning Science
to Reboot Schooling (2013), provided
inspiration for a “learning engineering”
group at the Harvard Extension School.
Those efforts included a global workshop
and collaboration across industry,
nonprofits, foundations, professors, and
practitioners that resulted in the book
Learning Engineering for Online Education:
Theoretical Contexts and Design-Based
Example (2018). This session is designed
to share key ideas and approaches to
learning engineering from this project and
how others can implement similar strategies.
Presenters:
Chris Dede, Harvard University
Gabe Abrams, Harvard University
Moderator: Rita Burrell, Purdue University
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A Harvard LTI Tool Suite: new grading tools, swipe-in attendance & facilitated collaboration
InstructureCon 2019
How six Harvard courses leveraged homemade Canvas tools to measure grader harshness and comment coverage, promoting fair
and consistent grading; to intelligently seat students upon swipe-in, encouraging peer network building; and to enable
new ways to grade, like self-grading and horizontal grading.
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/InstructureCon-2018/A-Harvard-LTI-Tool-Suite-New-Ways-to-Grade-Faster-and-More/m-p/384354
Committees
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Harvard Committee for Employee Experience — 2022 to 2023
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Harvard Remote Work Committee — 2020 to 2022
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Harvard Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee — 2020 to 2021
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Harvard Diversity & Inclusion Committee — 2016 to 2017
Technical Skills
Web Design:
Typescript
JavaScript
HTML
CSS
Bootstrap
jQuery
Chart.js
Server Technologies:
Node.js
Express
Mongo
MySQL
DynamoDB
NGINX
Media and Production:
Photoshop
Illustrator
Final Cut Pro
Premiere
Lightroom
Logic Pro
Cloud Infrastructure:
AWS
Heroku
Web App Development:
React
EJS
socket.io
Office:
Excel
PowerPoint
Numbers
Keynote
Google Sheets
Google Slides
Favorite Languages:
JavaScript
Python
Java
Octave
Matlab
Teaching in Action
Gabe teaching students to program Baxter the robot how to stack colored blocks.
Students getting Baxter to stack nine blocks.
Building houses out of blocks with Baxter.