Hard probes at intermediate energies (including fixed-target programs)

This contribution overviews recent progresses on utilizing hard probes (particles of high transverse momentum (pT) or large mass) to explore a variety of topics in p+A and A+A collisions with center-of-mass energies below 200 GeV. This includes: $i)$ search for the intrinsic charm in nucleons; $ii)$ measurements of high-pT hadrons, electrons from heavy favor hadron decay, thermal dilepton and J/ψ at various beam energies; $iii)$ theoretical perspective on probing collision dynamics with photons. An outlook to future measurements and programs, including phase-II of the beam energy scan program at RHIC and the NA60+ experiment proposed at SPS, is also given.