  Hard probes are indispensable tools to study the hot and dense quark-gluon
matter created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. These probes are
created in the collision itself with a small cross section, and they serve as
indicators of various properties of the medium, such as temperature, viscosity,
energy density, transport coefficients. Hard probes measured by the CMS and
ATLAS experiments at the LHC include highly energetic jets and charged
particles, quarkonium states, and electroweak gauge bosons. An overview of
those recent experimental results will be given that represent the path towards
high-precision measurements, even in the challenging, high-multiplicity
environment created by colliding heavy ions.
