Ada Lovelace, born Augusta Ada Byron on December 10, 1815, and deceased on November 27, 1852, was an English mathematician and writer who is best known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke.
Ada’s contributions to the field of computer science were monumental and she is often celebrated as the world’s first computer programmer. This is because she wrote an algorithm intended to be processed by the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine, and because of this, she is often cited as the world’s first computer programmer.
Babbage’s Analytical Engine was never built in his lifetime, but Lovelace’s notes became a crucial source of inspiration and technical detail for later generations of computer scientists and engineers. Today, Ada Lovelace is celebrated annually on Ada Lovelace Day in mid-October, an event meant to highlight the contributions of women to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
