W-Women Globally

It’s not a contemporary story even if it could be. A young computer scientist, mother of three, dying of cancer at the age of 37. In 1852.  Over 150 years ago.
During her short life she created the very first plan for a new calculating engine, predicting at the same time that this kind of a machine might be used to compose complex music, produce graphics and have many other practical and scientific functions. In short – she created the very first computer software.

A Scientist

Augusta Ada Byron aka Lady Lovelace, was born the 10th of December 1815 in England. She was the fruit of the short marriage between the poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabelle Milbanke, later Lady Byron.

Right after Ada’s birth her mother asked for separation from Lord Byron who then left England for good. In the fear of her daughter ending as a poet in line with her father, (whom Ada never met), Lady Byron focused on giving her a scientific education. Ada was for sure an extremely talented girl. Already in 1828, as 13-years old, she produced the design of a flying machine. However, even if she had a privilege of growing up in the elite society of London, the scientists were not regarded as a profession, but rather as a hobby of the noblemen in the nighteen century. Obviously, ‘the participation of noblewomen in intellectual pursuits was not widely encouraged’.

But Ada has a passion for mathematics. Her scientific journey begins at the age of 17, when she meets Charles Babbage, professor of mathematics at Cambridge, who is already working on his invention called the Difference Engine, operated by the method of finite differences. The lifelong friendship and correspondence begins and Ada is one of the very few who fully understand the concept.

At the age of 20, Ada marries William King – later the Earl of Lovelace. Despite almost constant illness and pain, she gives birth to 3 children.

At the same time Babbage is working on his plans for the new Analytical Engine and presents them at a seminar in Turin, Italy, in the autumn of 1841. One of the participants, Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea, publishes an article in French on the basis of the summary made from Babbage’s presentation. When Ada got it in her hands 2 years later, she translates it into English and after Babbage’s suggestion of making some additional notes on her own, she ends up with the long essay where she includes her method for calculating the so-called Bernoulli numbers as well as her predictions about the broad use of the Engine. As we know today, she was correct. The theory behind the prototype of computer was made, but the calculations were never finished and the machine was never built.

The Heritage

Ada Lovelace died at the age of 37 of uterine cancer. ’ Her life was an apotheosis of struggle between emotion and reason, subjectivism and objectivism, poetics and mathematics, ill health and bursts of energy.’

Her notes contribute to her fame today, her thoughts have been re-discovered in the recent time, more than a century after her death.

Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace inspired Suw Charman-Anderson, former Executive Director of the Open Rights Group  to celebrate the Ada Lovelace Day, on 24th of March 2009. The main purpose was “to draw attention to women excelling in technology” under the assumption based on the recent research made by psychologist Penelope Lockwood that ‘women need to see female role models more than men need to see male ones’.

The bloggers from all over the world have celebrated the day by publishing a blog post on March 24 about women in technology they admire.

We would like to say that we have forget about this day, but the true is: we didn’t know. Now we have made our homework, learnt a lot and have already prepared to the next year’s celebration.

Read More under:  http://findingada.com/ , http://www.pledgebank.com/AdaLovelaceDay

Read the article about the most influential women in technology – today.

Sources: Dr. Betty Toole

wikipedia.com