Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of famed poet Lord Byron, is often touted as being the world’s first computer programmer, but was she really? Ada’s upbringing was quite unique compared to that of most children of such authors – her mother encouraged her to study mathematics and science so as to counteract any “poetic influences” present from him.
She became famous through her work with Charles Babbage, a fellow scientist designing the Analytical Engine to handle complex calculations. Although she passed away young, their collaboration became widely recognized – in 1843 they published an English translation of Luigi Menabrea’s article on the machine plus additional notes from themselves – widely considered the world’s first computer programmer.
Recently I came across Limor Fried who uses the moniker Lady_Ada in honor of Ada Lovelace; she hails from MIT as an electrical engineer and founded Adafruit Industries with her name in honour of Lady Ada; it states in her bio: “I’m a maker and founder of Adafruit; an online store for open source electronic hardware suited for everyone from beginners to pros!” Consequently, I asked who she admired among female programmers, engineers, or makers – she stated here as some examples: