Let me introduce you to Ada Lovelace. A woman after all of our hearts, she loved a glass of wine or two, had the odd affair and compiled notes back in the 1840’s that are now recognised as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine. Thanks to this, she is considered the world’s first computer programmer.
Her story was of real interest to me as I studied Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence back in University in 2006. Being one of the only girls on the course, it was of great satisfaction to find out that the ‘Worlds First Programmer’ was also a woman.
After applying for university when in 6th form, and to be told that I categorically wouldn’t enjoy the course, I spent the next 5 years competing with 102 boys to prove to both myself and my tutors that women can study computer programming AND enjoy it!
So, back to Ada. I spent some time reading up about this intriguing lady and came to find that she was no stereotypical geek. She was born Augusta Ada Byron on 10th December 1815. She went through life flirting with the odd scandal here and there. Beginning in a relaxed relationship with two men who weren’t her husband starting the rumors of affairs, leading on to her love of gambling, which led her to a very ambitious attempt in 1851 to create a mathematical model for successful large bets. Unfortunately for Ada and her male friend, this left her thousands of pounds in debt and in the unfavorable position of confessing her previous sins to her husband.
So how did Ada get into writing the first machine processable algorithm? It began in 1842 when Charles Babbage asked Ada to translate Luigi Menabrea’s write up of one of his university seminars.
Ada spent the majority of a year doing so, but her notes were not republished until over one hundred years after her death. In her notes Ada described an algorithm for the analytical engine to compute Bernoulli numbers, and for this reason Ada is cited as the first computer programmer. She recognised that through the punched card input device, the Analytical Engine opened up a whole new opportunity for designing machines that could manipulate symbols rather than just numbers.
Some may argue that the engine was never completed in Ada’s lifetime so her algorithm was never used on a computing machine, therefore making the claim that she is the first computer programmer understated. However, The United States Department of Defense created a computer language named Ada in the 1980’s. (So she must have done something right!) Since 1998 the British Computer Society has awarded a medal in her name and in 2008 initiated an annual competition for women students of computer science.
‘Ada Lovelace Day’ is an annual event celebrated on October 16th with the main aim to “raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.
This year alone there were over 17, 500 mentions of Ada Lovelace on Twitter and over 12, 500 mentions of Ada Lovelace Day. Thats pretty good going for a gambling, wine-drinking woman!
After learning about this inspiring woman’s life back in the 1800s, I myself will definitely be celebrating Ada Lovelace Day next year!