Ada Lovelace - World's First Computer Programmer ｜ One Stop Science Shop

This is Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, also known as Ada Lovelace, born in December 1815. She was a British mathematician and writer who was regarded by many to be the world's first computer programmer. Of course there weren't computers in 1815. Just be patient and all will be explained. She was the only child of the famous English poet Lord Byron Deserted by Byron, Ada's mother remained bitter towards him and promoted Ada's interest in mathematics and logic, and not poetry like her father, as a form of revenge. Ada's social circle consisted of many prominent names and one of them was the famous polymath and inventor Charles Babbage. She was chosen to translate a paper from the French on Babbage's famous invention, the analytical engine, a mechanical general-purpose computer. Ada was enchanted by the machine and started working on ways to use it. She wrote extensively on the machine and described an algorithm for the analytical engine to compute Bernoulli numbers. An algorithm is a set of step-by-step directions to achieve a particular result. Ada's algorithm is considered as the first algorithm ever specifically tailored for a computer and Ada has often been cited as the world's first computer programmer. Unfortunately, Ada's scandalous private life took some of the limelight away from her algorithm during the 19th century. 100 years later though, computer programmers recognize her method as the world's first computer program. Ada Lovelace Day, every october, has been named after her and aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. The computer language Ada created on behalf of the United States Department of Defense was also named after Lovelace and today in St. James Square, London, she has her own blue plaque as a historical marker to her memory.