Ada Lovelace Day

Did you know that October 16th is Ada Lovelace Day? Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.

Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, was one of the most picturesque characters in computer history. A brilliant mathematician, analyst and metaphysician, she is widely regarded as the founder of scientific computing:

  • Ada was born 10 December 1815, the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron
  • She was strongly interested in scientific developments including phrenology and mesmerism.
  • Ada Lovelace died on 27 November 1852 at the age of thirty-six

When she was just 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, at a dinner party and learned for the first time of Babbage’s ideas for the invention of a new calculating engine. Ada suggested to Babbage that she should write a plan for how his new Analytical Engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. The plan she wrote thereafter, is now regarded as the first “computer program.”

All that people need to do to take part in Ada Lovelace Day is to talk about the accomplishments of a woman in science, technology, engineering or maths, whether in a blog post, Facebook update, video, podcast or other medium. Supporters can add their URL to the FindingAda database to make it more easily findable.

So lets tell the world about unsung heroines in science or technology. Whatever she does, whether she is a project manager, sys-admin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, let us celebrate her achievements.

Ada Lovelace Day – Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.

FindingAda database