Celebrating Ada Lovelace - The Pioneer of Programming

Ada Lovelace Day, named after mathematician and computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace, is celebrated annually on the second Tuesday of October. The day recognizes and raises awareness of the contributions of women to STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics - while encouraging initiatives that foster inclusion and equality. It also serves as an opportunity to honor the woman behind the celebration and to reflect on the progress made toward gender equality in these fields since her time.

"And of this, oh, my father! Be sure
That the blood of thy child is as pure
As the blessing I beg ere it flow
And the last thought that soothes me below”

These lines were penned by the British poet Lord Byron in his poem 'Jephthah's Daughter,' which, like many of his works, romanticized biblical stories.

Lord Byron's real-life daughter, his only legitimate child, never got to know him—or, more precisely, he never got to know her. Ada Augusta Byron was born in December 1815 to Byron and his then-wife, Anne Isabella Byron. Disappointed by the birth of a daughter instead of a son, Byron quickly dissolved the marriage and refused to receive further updates about the newborn. News about her well-being reached his sister instead. Lord Byron himself passed away when Ada was nine years old, and her mother did everything possible to distance her from his influence. Ada did not even see his portrait until she was over twenty years old.

Unlike many of the great mathematicians who displayed a natural interest in the field, young Ada showed little interest in numbers or equations. Her mother, Anne Isabella Noel Byron, commonly known as Lady Byron, who herself came from a strong mathematical background (Lord Byron even referred to her as "my Princess of Parallelograms"), was determined to cultivate her daughter’s interest in mathematics  and hired the best private tutors available. However, Ada was more drawn toward geography.

It was largely thanks to Lady Arabella Lawrence, a governess with whom Ada corresponded extensively, that the necessity to study mathematics gradually transformed into a genuine interest for Ada. At a certain point, her math tutor, Dr. William King could no longer keep up with her rapid progress. He had to admit, somewhat embarrassed, that his mathematical knowledge was primarily gained through reading rather than practical experience, which is crucial in mathematics.  In 1835, Ada Byron married another William King, and when he became the Earl of Lovelace three years later, she became Ada King, Countess of Lovelace—or simply, Ada Lovelace.

Ada Lovelace’s interest in mathematics developed gradually with the support of skilled tutors. Ada Lovelace playing the piano, painting by Henry Phillips, 1852 | Source: Wikipedia, Public Domain

Calculating Machine

In 1833, Lovelace (then still Byron) met Charles Babbage, inventor of the Difference Engine—a mechanical calculating machine, or by today’s standards, a basic calculator. Due to its high costs, the machine was never fully completed during Babbage’s lifetime, only being fully constructed about 160 years later. Ada was captivated by the beauty of the invention. In the following years, she expanded her mathematical education with the assistance of Augustus De Morgan, a renowned mathematician and logician married to her friend, Sophia.

Her interest in the intricacies of the Difference Engine—and its successor, the Analytical Engine—continued to grow. In 1843, she translated into English an article on the subject, originally written in French by Luigi Menabrea, who would later become the seventh Prime Minister of Italy. This translation, which Lovelace modestly referred to as "Notes," was supplemented with her own set of annotations.  These included a detailed explanation—absent from the original text—of how to program the Analytical Engine. At the conclusion of the note, Ada presented an algorithm she developed for calculating Bernoulli numbers, which are widely used in the analysis of complex functions and number theory. This algorithm incorporated the use of loops—a fundamental structure that is the bread and butter of basic programming - representing what may be considered the first computer program. The translation earned Lovelace the posthumous title of "the first computer programmer." As one might expect, given the societal norms of her time, it was highly unusual for a woman to publish work of this nature, making it unsurprising that the article was signed only with her initials, AAL.

 Captivated by the invention. Lovelace and Charles Babbage, developer of the "Difference Engine"—a pioneering calculating machine | Illustration: HappySloth, Shutterstock

Babbage described the situation as: ""[...] the late Countess of Lovelace informed me that she had translated the memoir of Menabrea. I asked why she had not herself written an original paper on a subject with which she was so intimately acquainted?  To this Lady Lovelace replied that the thought had not occurred to her. I then suggested that she should add some notes to Menabrea's memoir; an idea which was immediately adopted.”  Lovelace’s notes span about three times the length of the original book and explore every question and subtlety related to the subject.

Alongside the publication of the book and in the years that followed, Lovelace’s health, which had been poor since her youth, continued to decline further. Some speculate that her deteriorating condition was exacerbated by the absence of a central intellectual focus and a lack of companions to engage with on mathematical topics, despite ongoing correspondence with Babbage, who was still alive at the time.  At one point, Lovelace contemplated writing a paper on Ohm’s galvanic series, which ranks metallic and semi-metallic elements according to their resistance to oxidation—a topic seemingly far removed from her earlier mathematical work. However, she eventually abandoned this idea. In her later years, Lovelace struggled with addiction, becoming entangled in debts from gambling on horse races and increasingly dependent on alcohol. She died of uterine cancer in November 1852, at the age of 37.

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Lovelace’s notes to the original text secured her a place in history. A table from her algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the Analytical Engine | Source: sophiararebooks, Wikipedia, public domain

Late Recognition

Ada Lovelace was forgotten by history for many decades until her work was revived in the 1950s. Alan Turing, the father of computer science, wrote a paper on the feasibility of artificial intelligence, which later became known as the "Turing Test."   As part of the background for his argument, Turing cited "Lady Lovelace's objection" as a counterargument to the possibility of thinking machines, referring to her statement in the Notes that the Analytical Engine could only perform tasks it was instructed to do - nothing more, nothing less.

In 1980, Lovelace’s legacy was further honored when the programming language Ada was named after her, replacing 450 different programming languages previously used by the U.S. military. Another significant highlight of her commemoration is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrated every second Tuesday in October since 2009.

This initiative was conceived by activist Suw Charman-Anderson, who believed that society should recognize and celebrate the achievements of women in the fields of science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM), who often do not receive the recognition they deserve. Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated through a series of events in schools, academia, libraries, and museums. These events include Wikipedia edit-a-thons (full disclosure: the undersigned is an active Wikipedian) aimed at increasing awareness and recognition of women's contributions to STEM, as well as film screenings and panel discussions.

In 2022, Charman-Anderson announced that it would be the last year Ada Lovelace Day would be celebrated, as funding for the central foundation, the UK-based Finding Ada fund, had run out. At this point, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, a long-standing charity organization dedicated to promoting science, stepped in and announced that it would help fund the initiative, ensuring the continuation of the celebration with renewed enthusiasm.

Who will remove the dust from your eyes, Ada Lovelace? Behold what a day of celebration it has become, so far removed from the era in which you lived. Clearly, days like these play a significant role in inspiring and encouraging young girls to pursue scientific professions, whether in high school or higher education. This is a heartfelt call for schools to dedicate even just one hour to this cause, for surely, among today’s students sitting on school benches, the next Ada will emerge—whether it be another Ada Lovelace or perhaps an Ada Yonath.