ADA LOVELACE

Dear reader, 

Today I want to talk about the special secession we had back on March 8th, the International Women’s Day. During that day, the University of Girona (UdG) scheduled some open classes related whose topic was somehow related to women. Our professor of SFE: Technologies, Eduard Muntaner, conducted one of those special lectures, while talking about Ada Lovelace. This session really appealed to me, that’s why I would like to dedicate this entry to her and her story. 

In this noteworthy session called Ada Lovelace’s Dream, a little bit of her story and her life was told. Ada Lovelace is nowadays considered the first programmer in history; she was a mathematician and a writer. Lovelace was born in England back in 1815 and was the daughter of Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke; a famous poet and a social activist and mathematician, respectively. She is also commonly known for her contributions to the theoretical principles of computing. In June 1833, Ada Lovelace met Charles Babbage, a mathematician known for his different inventions, like the mechanical calculator of polynomials. Getting to the point, 10 years later, Lovelace would publish a translation of one of Babbage’s articles. This publication not only contained the translation, but also numerous notes, which were longer than the original article. Ada’s inscriptions described how an analytical engine could work through different series of calculations, in other words, she wrote by hand the first computer program ever.

To be honest, I really enjoy this lesson. In first place because, before this class, I didn’t know anything about which Ada Lovelace was nor her accomplishments. Secondly, due to the fact that I’m a curious person and I genuinely like learning new things, specifically if they are related somehow with history. As I mentioned before in this blog, I used to compete in robotics competitions for many years, and I have always been completely aware of the lack of women in this field. That’s why, when our professor acknowledged Ada Lovelace as the first programmer ever for the first time, it captivated my full attention. 

After explaining her story, our professor also mentioned other women that made history in this field, like Margaret Hamilton, or Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. In relation with these three last women, I undoubtedly recommend the film called Hidden Figures, which explain their story in a very touching way. The professor recommended this production during the class, but I already watch it years ago, and I have to say that it was life changing for me. I personally think that it’s a very powerful film, because it not only represents the difficulty of women in this field, but also the black people oppression of that time. 

Lastly, that day in class, we also did an activity related to the topic. We had to use AI to create images that represent different moments of Ada Lovelace’s life. I have to say that we all came out with very peculiar photos.

Did you know who she was? If not, let me know if you find her interesting? I don’t know about you, but I sure did.

See you soon,

Núria Brusi

Fig. 1: Picture created with Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the

class activity.