October 13 this year marks the seventh annual Ada Lovelace Day celebration.
The worldwide event honors the accomplishments of the gifted nineteenth century mathematician Ada Lovelace and showcases the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Ada Lovelace wrote the first algorithm and is often referred to as the first computer programmer. She was known as The Enchantress of Numbers.
Each year Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated on the second Tuesday of October, with events held around the world, including conferences, hackathons, workshops, talks, Wikipedia edit-a-thons, teas, and exhibitions.
History of Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace was born in 1815, the child of the poet Lord Byron and his wife Annabella Milbanke. In her early life, her mother raised Lovelace to focus on science, logic, and mathematics.
At the age of 17, Lovelace met mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage (known as the father of the computer), who became a mentor to Lovelace. The two corresponded and became close friends.
Babbage created plans for what he called the Analytical Engine (the first modern digital computer) for handling complex calculations.
In 1842, Babbage asked Lovelace to translate a publication of mathematician Louis Menebrea, who wrote about the Analytical Engine in French.
Lovelace added her own notes and calculations to the translation of Menebrea’s publication, causing the article to triple in size.
In her notes, Lovelace proposed an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to calculate a sequence of Bernoulli numbers and also pointed out a bug in Babbage’s equations.
To this it may be replied, that an analysing process must equally have been performed in order to furnish the Analytical Engine with the necessary operative data; and that herein may also lie a possible source of error.
Lovelace died at the age of 36. Over one hundred years passed before her work was recognized when Alan Turing referenced it in his 1950 publication Computing Machinery and Intelligence.
In 1980, the United States Department of Defense named their object-oriented programming language Ada after Lovelace.
Organize An Ada Lovelace Day Event
There’s still time to organize an event in your community for Ada Lovelace Day. The goal is to raise the profile of women and their accomplishments in STEM.
Download the organizer’s pack with tips, inspiration, and suggestions for your own Ada Lovelace Day event.
Events in Michigan
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any Ada Lovelace Day events in Michigan. I’ve contacted libraries, universities, and several of my colleagues who work with technology and on the web, but no one knows of a local Michigan event.
When I find an event, I’ll publish an update.
Resources
- Who Was Ada?
- Finding Ada Community: an online forum to talk about STEM, share info about organizations, plan Ada Lovelace Day events
- Computer History Museum: Ada Lovelace
Are you planning to attend an Ada Lovelace Day event in October?
