15th October - Ada Lovelace Day

(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”.