(Many thanks to Tim Rylands for this post, and several others on this blog!)
The 15th of October is
Ada Lovelace Day,
a chance to celebrate, and highlight, some of the, often forgotten, yet
remarkable, achievements of women, down through the years, to the
present day, in the fields of science, technology, engineering &
mathematics.
The day could be a fabulous opportunity to stimulate some writing,
research and investigations in to women from the past, or today’s
pioneers.
Ada Lovelace is widely held to have been the first computer programmer. Close friends with inventor
Charles Babbage, Lovelace was intrigued by his
Analytical Engine and in 1842, she translated a description of it by Italian mathematician
Luigi Menabrea.

Babbage
asked her to expand the article, “as she understood it so well”, and
this was when she wrote several early ‘computer programs’. Her notes on
the engine include what is recognised as the first
algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; thanks to this, she is sometimes considered the world’s first
computer programmer. Ada’s notes are important in the early
history of computers.
She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere
calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself,
focused only on these capabilities.
Ada was the only legitimate child of the poet
Lord Byron (with
Anne Isabella Milbanke, 11th Baroness Wentworth). Ada died of cancer at 36, her potential tragically unfulfilled.
Read more about Ada Lovelace on the
Finding Ada page
here.
Ada Lovelace Day 2013
is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists,
technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired many. The aim is to
create new role models for girls and women in these male-dominated
fields by raising the profile of other women in STEM.
It’s really easy to get involved in Ada Lovelace Day: When 15th October
starts, just write or record something about a women in science,
technology, engineering or maths whose achievements you admire. It can
be a blog post, a Facebook update, a podcast, a video – whatever you
like.
When it’s published online,
visit this page to find out how to add your story to the collection.

Take a look at the wonderful
Sydney Padua.com for some exquisite art work, and “The Origin”,a
wonderful comic on the back story and early days of Ada Lovelace.
2D Goggles or “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage”, is a “highly irregular webcomic, with footnotes* with
an interesting cast.

Lovelace and Babbage is now
a snazzy FREE iPad App, thanks to the good folks at
Agant!
It has “The Origin” for free, with “a bevy of brand-new notes and
primary docs in fabulous Rotate-O-Vision, for all your Lovelace and
Babbage trivia needs”.