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Talking about IT, maybe some people will think that this field is mostly cultivated by men and few women who love it. This thought has even become a hereditary stereotype even though nowadays many women are starting to work as competent programmers. However, did you know that the role of women in this field started hundreds of years ago? even the world’s first programmer was a woman named Ada Lovelace.
Read also: Female Programmer: Breaking Gender Stereotypes In Tech
So who is Ada Lovelace? How did she contribute to the IT field? In this article, Algobash will invite you to find out some interesting facts about her. If you are interested in knowing it, don’t forget to read the full article.
Get to know Ada Lovelace
Here we present some fun facts about Ada Lovelace, the first programmer to advance the IT field in the world.
1. Daughter of a famous English poet and mathematician
Ada Lovelace or Ada King Countess Lovelace whose real name is Augusta Ada Byron is a woman born in London on December 10, 1815. She is the daughter of an English couple, Lord Byron, a prominent poet, and Annabella Milbanke Byron, a mathematician. However, her parents divorced two months after the birth of Ada Lovelace. Her father left London and never saw him again.
This separation made Ada Lovelace grow up not knowing her father figure personally and that is what led her to explore the computer field and become a programmer.
2. Taking math lessons at an early age because her mother didn’t want him to be a poet
Ada Lovelace’s mother, Lady Byron, is a mathematician who earned the title “Princess of Parallelograms.” She has been guiding her daughter to study math and science since she was 4 years old. At this time, both courses are not commonly studied by women. But Lady Byron did this because she didn’t want to see her daughter end up becoming a poet like her husband.
3. Successfully made a flying machine concept at the age of 12
At the age of twelve and still very young, Ada Lovelace has a very brilliant imagination. After participating in various studies of bird anatomy, she came up with a concept to build a flying machine. In her biography, she illustrated the concept to her mother that she would build something in the shape of a horse with a steam engine inside designed so that it could flap the two large side-mounted wings. So that the machine can take off and lift it into the air.
4. Mentored by “The Father of Computers”
At the age of 17, Ada Lovelace Meets Charles Babbage, an inventor, and mathematician. She witnessed a demonstration conducted by Charles Babbage regarding a device that invented an automatic counter which earned him the nickname “The Father of Computers”.
After the meeting, Ada Lovelace finally became a student of Charles Babbage. Later, she translated an Italian article written by an Italian engineer, Luigi Betharia. Lovelace rewrote the article in English, even adding some of his notes on analytical engines. The article was completed by her in threefold length, then in 1843 it was published as a journal under the initials “A.A.L.”
In the note, she describes how a machine can be programmed using code to calculate Bernoulli. The writing is then considered by some to be the first algorithm run by a machine as well as the world’s first computer program.
5. Believing that computers can do more than just numbers
Ada Lovelace is a revolutionary, she believes that computers are not just numbers. She predicts that in the future modern computers can be multipurpose. Charles Babbage believes that although the use of his machine is limited to numerical calculations, Lovelace thinks that any type of content can be translated into a digital form such as text, music, sound, and images.
6. Her contributions to computers were not recognized until a century after his death
Although Ada Lovelace’s services are so great in the programming world. Apparently, at that time she did not get the attention she deserved. All of the ideas she put into Babbage’s article notes on analytical engines only gained attention when they were rewritten after a century. This is a natural thing considering that at that time Lovelace created various ideas about computing long before the invention of the computer.
So, those are some interesting facts about Ada Lovelace that you might not know. She made an outstanding contribution to the world of programming. All genders have an equal position to advance technology and other fields in the world.
Read full also: How Do Women Impact Your Tech Team?
How are the facts as well as the story of Ada Lovelace, very interesting, right? If you want to know other information, don’t forget to visit Algobash Insight to find other articles about recruitment and technology.