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{{Short description|English mathematician (1815–1852)}}
{{For|the computer microarchitecture|Ada Lovelace (microarchitecture)}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = The Countess of Lovelace
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| image = Ada Lovelace daguerreotype by Antoine Claudet 1843 - cropped.png
| image_size = 220
| caption = Daguerreotype of Lovelace by Antoine Claudet ({{circa|1843}})<ref>{{cite web | url=https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/2015/10/14/only-known-photographs-of-ada-lovelace-in-bodleian-display/ | title=Only known photographs of Ada Lovelace in Bodleian Display | date=14 October 2015 }}</ref>
| birth_name = Hon. Augusta Ada Byron
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1815|12|10}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1852|11|27|1815|12|10}}
| death_place = [[Marylebone]], London, England
| nationality = British
| resting place = [[Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall]], Nottingham, England
| spouse = {{marriage|[[William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace]]|1835}}
| children = {{plainlist|
* [[Byron King-Noel, Viscount Ockham]]
* [[Anne Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth]]
* [[Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace]]}}
| parents = {{Plainlist |
* [[Lord Byron|George Byron, 6th Baron Byron]] (father)
* [[Lady Byron|Anne Isabella Milbanke]] (mother)
}}
| known_for = [[Mathematics]], [[computing]]
| signature = Augusta Ava Lovelace autograph.svg
| alt = Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, daguerrotype portrait circa 1843
}}
'''Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace''' ({{née|'''Byron'''}}; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), also known as '''Ada Lovelace''', was an English [[mathematician]] and [[writer]] chiefly known for her work on [[Charles Babbage]]'s proposed mechanical general-purpose [[computer]], the [[Analytical Engine]]. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation.
Lovelace was the only legitimate child of poet [[Lord Byron]] and reformer [[Anne Isabella Milbanke]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/people/ada-lovelace-20825323|title=Ada Lovelace Biography|website=biography.com|date=6 May 2021 }}</ref> All her half-siblings, [[Lord Byron#Children|Lord Byron's other children]], were born out of [[wedlock]] to other women.<ref name= ABCL/> Lord Byron separated from his wife a month after Ada was born and left [[England]] forever. He died in [[Greece]] whilst fighting in the Greek War of Independence, when she was eight. Lady Byron was anxious about her daughter's upbringing and promoted Lovelace's interest in mathematics and logic in an effort to prevent her from developing her father's perceived [[insanity]]. Despite this, Lovelace remained interested in her father, naming one son [[Byron King-Noel, Viscount Ockham|Byron]] and the other, for her father's middle name, [[Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace|Gordon]]. Upon her death, she was buried next to her father at her request. Although often ill in her childhood, Lovelace pursued her studies assiduously. She married [[William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace|William King]] in 1835. King was made [[Earl of Lovelace]] in 1838, Ada thereby becoming Countess of Lovelace.
Lovelace's educational and social exploits brought her into contact with scientists such as [[Andrew Crosse]], Charles Babbage, [[Sir David Brewster]], [[Charles Wheatstone]] and [[Michael Faraday]], and the author [[Charles Dickens]], contacts which she used to further her education. Lovelace described her approach as "poetical science"{{Sfn|Toole|1998|pp=234–235}} and herself as an "Analyst (& Metaphysician)".{{Sfn|Toole|1998|pp=156–157}}
When she was eighteen, Lovelace's mathematical talents led her to a long working relationship and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage. She was in particular interested in Babbage's work on the [[Analytical Engine]]. Lovelace first met him on 5 June 1833, when she and [[Lady Byron|her mother]] attended one of [[Charles Babbage's Saturday night soirées]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Toole |first=Betty Alexandra |title=Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers:Poetical Science |date=2010 |publisher=Critical Connection |edition=Kindle |pages=Location 641}}</ref> with their mutual friend, and Lovelace's private tutor, [[Mary Somerville]].
Though Babbage's Analytical Engine was never constructed and exercised no influence on the later invention of electronic computers, it has been recognised in retrospect as a [[Turing completeness|Turing-complete]] general-purpose computer which anticipated the essential features of a modern electronic computer; Babbage is therefore known as the "father of computers," and Lovelace is credited with several computing "firsts" for her collaboration with him.
Between 1842 and 1843, Lovelace translated [[wikisource:Scientific Memoirs/3/Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq.|an article]] by the military engineer [[Luigi Menabrea]] (later [[Prime Minister of Italy]]) about the Analytical Engine, supplementing it with [[wikisource:Scientific Memoirs/3/Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq./Notes by the Translator|seven long explanatory notes]].<!--this is an inappropriate way of linking this material -- maybe a marginal box or something, but that can't be in the lead--> These notes described a method of using the machine to calculate [[Bernoulli number]]s which is often called the first published [[computer program]].
She also developed a vision of the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching, while many others, including Babbage himself, focused only on those capabilities.{{Sfn|Fuegi|Francis|2003|pp=19, 25}} Lovelace was the first to point out the possibility of encoding information besides mere arithmetical figures, such as music, and manipulating it with such a machine. Her mindset of "poetical science" led her to ask questions about the Analytical Engine (as shown in her notes), examining how individuals and society relate to technology as a collaborative tool.<ref name="ABCL">{{Citation|last=Toole|first=Betty Alexandra|title=Poetical Science|journal=The Byron Journal|volume=15|year=1987|pages=55–65|doi=10.3828/bj.1987.6}}.</ref>
Ada is widely commemorated (see [[#Commemoration|Commemoration]] below), including in the names of a programming language, several roads, buildings and institutes as well as programmes, lectures and courses. There are also a number of plaques, statues, paintings, literary and non-fiction works.
==Biography==
===Childhood===
[[Lord Byron]] expected his child to be a "glorious boy" and was disappointed when [[Lady Byron]] gave birth to a girl.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=35}} The child was named after Byron's half-sister, [[Augusta Leigh]], and was called "Ada" by Byron himself.{{Sfn|Stein|1985|p=17}} On 16 January 1816, at Lord Byron's command, Lady Byron left for her parents' home at [[Kirkby Mallory]], taking their five-week-old daughter with her.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=35}} Although English law at the time granted full custody of children to the father in cases of separation, Lord Byron made no attempt to claim his parental rights,{{Sfn|Stein|1985|p=16}} but did request that his sister keep him informed of Ada's welfare.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=80}}
[[File:Miniature of Ada Byron.jpg|thumb|Ada Byron, aged four|alt=Ada Byron, portrait at age four]]
On 21 April, Lord Byron signed the [[deed of separation]], although very reluctantly, and left England for good a few days later.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|pp=36–38}} Aside from an acrimonious separation, Lady Byron continued throughout her life to make allegations about her husband's immoral behaviour.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=74–77}} This set of events made Lovelace infamous in Victorian society. Ada did not have a relationship with her father. He died in April 1824 when she was eight years old. Her mother was the only significant parental figure in her life.<ref name="Turney p. 138">{{Harvnb|Turney|1972|p=138}}.</ref> Lovelace was not shown the family portrait of her father until her 20th birthday.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=10}}
[[File:Ada Lovelace child portrait Somerville College.jpg|thumb|left|Ada Byron, aged seven, by [[Alfred d'Orsay]], 1822, [[Somerville College, Oxford]]|alt=Ada Byron, portrait at age 7]]
Lovelace did not have a close relationship with her mother. She was often left in the care of her maternal grandmother Judith, Hon. Lady Milbanke, who doted on her. However, because of societal attitudes of the time—which favoured the husband in any separation, with the welfare of any child acting as mitigation—Lady Byron had to present herself as a loving mother to the rest of society. This included writing anxious letters to Lady Milbanke about her daughter's welfare, with a cover note saying to retain the letters in case she had to use them to show maternal concern.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=85–87}} In one letter to Lady Milbanke, she referred to her daughter as "it": "I talk to it for your satisfaction, not my own, and shall be very glad when you have it under your own."{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=86}} Lady Byron had her teenage daughter watched by close friends for any sign of moral deviation. Lovelace dubbed these observers the "Furies" and later complained they exaggerated and invented stories about her.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=119}}
[[File:Ada Byron aged seventeen (1832).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Ada Byron, aged seventeen, 1832|alt=Ada Byron, portrait drawn at age 17]]
Lovelace was often ill, beginning in early childhood. At the age of eight, she experienced headaches that obscured her vision.{{Sfn | Stein|1985|p=17}} In June 1829, she was paralyzed after a bout of [[measles]]. She was subjected to continuous bed rest for nearly a year, something which may have extended her period of disability. By 1831, she was able to walk with crutches. Despite the illnesses, she developed her mathematical and technological skills.
{{Blockquote|text=When Ada was twelve years old, this future "Lady Fairy", as Charles Babbage affectionately called her, decided she wanted to fly. Ada Byron went about the project methodically, thoughtfully, with imagination and passion. Her first step, in February 1828, was to construct wings. She investigated different material and sizes. She considered various materials for the wings: paper, oilsilk, wires, and feathers. She examined the [[anatomy of birds]] to determine the right proportion between the wings and the body. She decided to write a book, ''Flyology,'' illustrating, with plates, some of her findings. She decided what equipment she would need; for example, a compass, to "cut across the country by the most direct road", so that she could surmount mountains, rivers, and valleys. Her final step was to integrate steam with the "art of flying".<ref name=ABCL/>}}
Ada Byron had an affair with a tutor in early 1833. She tried to elope with him after she was caught, but the tutor's relatives recognised her and contacted her mother. Lady Byron and her friends covered the incident up to prevent a public scandal.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=120–21}} Lovelace never met her younger half-sister, [[Allegra Byron|Allegra]], the daughter of Lord Byron and [[Claire Clairmont]]. Allegra died in 1822 at the age of five. Lovelace did have some contact with [[Elizabeth Medora Leigh]], the daughter of Byron's half-sister Augusta Leigh, who purposely avoided Lovelace as much as possible when introduced at court.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=155}}
===Adult years===
[[File:Ada Lovelace portrait.jpg|thumb|Watercolour portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, {{Circa|1840}}, possibly by [[Alfred Edward Chalon]]|alt=Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. Watercolour portrait circa 1840]]
Lovelace became close friends with her tutor [[Mary Somerville]], who introduced her to Charles Babbage in 1833. She had a strong respect and affection for Somerville,{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=138–40}} and they corresponded for many years. Other acquaintances included the scientists [[Andrew Crosse]], [[David Brewster|Sir David Brewster]], [[Charles Wheatstone]], [[Michael Faraday]] and the author [[Charles Dickens]]. She was [[debutante|presented at Court]] at the age of seventeen "and became a popular belle of the season" in part because of her "brilliant mind".{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=138}} By 1834 Ada was a regular at Court and started attending various events. She danced often and was able to charm many people, and was described by most people as being dainty, although [[John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton|John Hobhouse]], Byron's friend, described her as "a large, coarse-skinned young woman but with something of my friend's features, particularly the mouth".{{Sfn|Turney|1972|pp=138–39}} This description followed their meeting on 24 February 1834 in which Ada made it clear to Hobhouse that she did not like him, probably due to her mother's influence, which led her to dislike all of her father's friends. This first impression was not to last, and they later became friends.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=139}}
[[File:Ada Lovelace's husband William King in uniform.webp|thumb|William King, 1st Earl of Lovelace in uniform]]
On 8 July 1835, she married [[William King, 1st Earl of Lovelace|William, 8th Baron King]], becoming Lady King. They had three homes: [[Ockham Park]], Surrey; a Scottish estate on [[Torridon|Loch Torridon]] in [[Ross-shire]]; and a house in London. They spent their honeymoon at Ashley Combe near [[Porlock Weir]], Somerset, which had been built as a hunting lodge in 1799 and was improved by King in preparation for their honeymoon. It later became their summer retreat and was further improved during this time. From 1845, the family's main house was [[Horsley Towers]], built in the [[Tudor Revival architecture|Tudorbethan]] fashion by the architect of the Houses of Parliament, [[Charles Barry]],<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol3/pp349-352 |title=A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Parishes: East Horsley|access-date=26 February 2017 |quote=Horsley Towers is a large house standing in a park of 300 acres, the seat of the Earl of Lovelace. The old house was rebuilt about 1745. The present house was built by Sir Charles Barry for Mr. Currie on a new site, between 1820 and 1829, in Elizabethan style. Mr. Currie, who owned the combined manors, 1784–1829, rebuilt most of the houses in the village and restored the church.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Andrew Crosse and the mite that shocked the world: The life and work of an electrical pioneer |last=Wright |first=Brian |isbn=978-1-78462-438-5 |page=262 |year=2015 |publisher=Matador }}</ref> and later greatly enlarged to Lovelace's own designs.
They had three children: [[Byron King-Noel, Viscount Ockham|Byron]] (born 1836); [[Lady Anne Blunt|Anne Isabella]] (called Annabella, born 1837); and [[Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace|Ralph Gordon]] (born 1839). Immediately after the birth of Annabella, Lady King experienced "a tedious and suffering illness, which took months to cure".{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=139}} Ada was a descendant of the extinct [[Baron Lovelace|Barons Lovelace]] and in 1838, her husband was made [[Earl of Lovelace]] and Viscount Ockham, meaning Ada became the Countess of Lovelace.<ref>{{cite news |via=[[NewspaperArchive.com]] |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-apr-09-1841-1422479/ |work=[[Macon Georgia Telegraph]] |___location=[[Macon, Georgia|Macon]], Georgia |date=9 April 1841 |page=3 |title=New York Fifty Years Ago }}</ref> In 1843–44, Ada's mother assigned [[William Benjamin Carpenter]] to teach Ada's children and to act as a "moral" instructor for Ada.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=285–86}} He quickly fell for her and encouraged her to express any frustrated affections, claiming that his marriage meant he would never act in an "unbecoming" manner. When it became clear that Carpenter was trying to start an affair, Ada cut it off.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=289–96}}
In 1841, Lovelace and [[Elizabeth Medora Leigh|Medora Leigh]] (the daughter of Lord Byron's half-sister Augusta Leigh) were told by Ada's mother that Ada's father was also Medora's father.{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=159}} On 27 February 1841, Ada wrote to her mother: "I am not in the least ''astonished''. In fact, you merely ''confirm'' what I have for ''years and years'' felt scarcely a doubt about, but should have considered it most improper in me to hint to you that I in any way suspected."{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=160}} She did not blame the incestuous relationship on Byron, but instead blamed Augusta Leigh: "I fear she is more inherently wicked than he ever was."{{Sfn|Moore|1961|p=431}} In the 1840s, Ada flirted with scandals: firstly, from a relaxed approach to extra-marital relationships with men, leading to rumours of affairs;{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=302}} and secondly, from her love of gambling. She apparently lost more than £3,000 on the horses during the later 1840s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-babbagesdancer-print.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030628211849/http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-babbagesdancer-print.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 June 2003|title=Babbage's Dancer|first=Simon|last=Schaffer|publisher=the hypermedia research centre|access-date=4 August 2017}}</ref> The gambling led to her forming a syndicate with male friends, and an ambitious attempt in 1851 to create a mathematical model for successful large bets. This went disastrously wrong, leaving her thousands of pounds in debt to the syndicate, forcing her to admit it all to her husband.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=340–42}} She had a shadowy relationship with Andrew Crosse's son John from 1844 onwards. John Crosse destroyed most of their correspondence after her death as part of a legal agreement. She bequeathed him the only heirlooms her father had personally left to her.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=336–37}} During her final illness, she would panic at the idea of the younger Crosse being kept from visiting her.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=361}}
===Education===
[[File:Ada Lovelace sonnet The Rainbow Somerville College.JPG|thumb|Sonnet titled ''The Rainbow'' in Lovelace's own hand ([[Somerville College Library|Somerville College]])]]
From 1832, when she was seventeen, her mathematical abilities began to emerge,{{Sfn|Turney|1972|p=138}} and her interest in mathematics dominated the majority of her adult life.{{Sfn|Stein|1985|pp=28–30}} Her mother's obsession with rooting out any of the insanity of which she accused Byron was one of the reasons that Ada was taught mathematics from an early age. She was privately educated in mathematics and science by [[William Frend (social reformer)|William Frend]], [[William King (physician)|William King]],<ref name=williamkings group=lower-alpha>William King, her tutor, and William King, her future husband, were not related.</ref> and Mary Somerville, the noted 19th-century researcher and scientific author. In the 1840s, the mathematician [[Augustus De Morgan]] extended her "much help in her mathematical studies" including study of advanced calculus topics including the "[[Bernoulli number|numbers of Bernoulli]]" (that formed her celebrated algorithm for Babbage's Analytical Engine).<ref>Thomas J. Misa, "Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, and the Bernoulli Numbers" in ''Ada's Legacy: Cultures of Computing from the Victorian to the Digital Age'', edited by Robin Hammerman and Andrew L. Russell (ACM Books, 2015), pp. 18–20, {{doi|10.1145/2809523}}.</ref> In a letter to Lady Byron, De Morgan suggested that Ada's skill in mathematics might lead her to become "an original mathematical investigator, perhaps of first-rate eminence".{{Sfn|Stein|1985|p=82}}
Lovelace often questioned basic assumptions through integrating poetry and science. Whilst studying [[differential calculus]], she wrote to De Morgan:
<blockquote>I may remark that the curious transformations many formulae can undergo, the unsuspected and to a beginner apparently impossible identity of forms exceedingly dissimilar at first sight, is I think one of the chief difficulties in the early part of mathematical studies. I am often reminded of certain sprites and fairies one reads of, who are at one's elbows in ''one'' shape now, and the next minute in a form most dissimilar.{{Sfn|Toole|1998|p=99}}</blockquote>
Lovelace believed that intuition and imagination were critical to effectively applying mathematical and scientific concepts. She valued [[metaphysics]] as much as mathematics, viewing both as tools for exploring "the unseen worlds around us".{{Sfn|Toole|1998|pp=91–100}}
===Death===
[[File:Ada Lovelace in 1852.jpg|thumb|Painting of Lovelace seated at a piano, by [[Henry Wyndham Phillips|Henry Phillips]] (1852). Although in great pain at the time, she agreed to sit for the painting as her father, [[Lord Byron]], had been painted by Phillips' father, [[Thomas Phillips]].|alt=Ada Lovelace, painted portrait circa 1852]]
Lovelace died at the age of 36 on 27 November 1852<ref>{{Citation |publisher=GRO |title=Register of Deaths |contribution=December 1852 1a * MARYLEBONE – Augusta Ada Lovelace}}.</ref> from [[cervical cancer]] (which contemporary accounts called uterine cancer, since a distinction between the two was not made at time).{{Sfn|Baum|1986|pp=99–100}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowy |first=Ilana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b0vgZtfspJMC&dq=ada+lovelace+cervical+cancer&pg=PP1 |title=A Woman's Disease: The History of Cervical Cancer |date=2011-11-10 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-954881-1 |language=en}}</ref> The illness lasted several months, in which time Lady Byron took command over whom Ada saw, and excluded all of her friends and confidants. Under her mother's influence, Ada had a religious transformation and was coaxed into repenting of her previous conduct and making Lady Byron her [[executor#Executor of will|executor]].{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=370}} She lost contact with her husband after confessing something to him on 30 August which caused him to abandon her bedside. It is not known what she told him.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=369}} She was buried, at her request, next to her father at the [[Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall|Church of St. Mary Magdalene]] in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.<ref name="Nast Wolfram 2015 d713">{{cite magazine |last=Wolfram | first=Stephen | title=Untangling the Tale of Ada Lovelace | magazine=WIRED | date=22 December 2015 | url=https://www.wired.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/ | access-date=6 April 2024}}</ref>
==Work==
Throughout her life, Lovelace was strongly interested in scientific developments and fads of the day, including [[phrenology]]{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=198}} and [[mesmerism]].{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=232–33}} After her work with Babbage, Lovelace continued to work on other projects. In 1844, she commented to a friend Woronzow Greig about her desire to create a mathematical model for how the brain gives rise to thoughts and nerves to feelings ("a calculus of the nervous system").{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=305}} She never achieved this, however. In part, her interest in the brain came from a long-running preoccupation, inherited from her mother, about her "potential" madness. As part of her research into this project, she visited the electrical engineer Andrew Crosse in 1844 to learn how to carry out electrical experiments.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=310–14}} In the same year, she wrote a review of a paper by Baron [[Karl von Reichenbach]], ''Researches on Magnetism'', but this was not published and does not appear to have progressed past the first draft.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=315–17}} In 1851, the year before her cancer struck, she wrote to her mother mentioning "certain productions" she was working on regarding the relation of maths and music.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=335}}
[[File:Ada Lovelace.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Portrait of Ada Lovelace]]'' by the British painter [[Margaret Sarah Carpenter]] (1836)|alt=Ada Lovelace, painted portrait circa 1836]]
Lovelace first met [[Charles Babbage]] in June 1833, through their mutual friend Mary Somerville. Later that month, Babbage invited Lovelace to see the prototype for his [[difference engine]].{{Sfn|Toole|1998|pp=36–38}} She became fascinated with the machine and used her relationship with Somerville to visit Babbage as often as she could. Babbage was impressed by Lovelace's intellect and analytic skills. He called her "The Enchantress of Number".<ref name="Number">{{cite journal |url=http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/ |first=Stephen |last=Wolfram |author-link=Stephen Wolfram |title=Untangling the Tale of Ada Lovelace |journal=Stephen Wolfram Writings |date=10 December 2015 |quote=Then, on Sept. 9, Babbage wrote to Ada, expressing his admiration for her and (famously) describing her as 'Enchantress of Number' and 'my dear and much admired Interpreter'. (Yes, despite what's often quoted, he wrote 'Number' not 'Numbers'.)}}</ref><ref name=enchantress group=lower-alpha>Some writers give it as "Enchantress of Numbers".</ref> In 1843, he wrote to her:
{{Blockquote|Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible its multitudinous Charlatans—every thing in short but the Enchantress of Number.<ref name="Number"/><!--part of quote in Wolfram's text, full quote in picture below, of Ada's letter-->}}
<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Füegi |first1=John |last2=Francis |first2=Jo |date=2015-08-14 |title=Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes' |url=https://doi.org/10.1145/2810201 |journal=ACM Inroads |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=78–86 |doi=10.1145/2810201 |s2cid=7666218 |issn=2153-2184 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215003909/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/81bb/f32d2642a7a8c6b0a867379a4e9e99d872bc.pdf |archive-date=2020-02-15 |quote="She became the first person known to have crossed the intellectual threshold between conceptualizing computing as only for calculation on the one hand, and on the other hand, computing as we know it today: with wider applications made possible by symbolic substitution."|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
===Babbage's lecture, Menabrea's French transcription, Lovelace's translation and Notes A-G===
In 1840, Babbage was invited to give a seminar at the [[University of Turin]] about his Analytical Engine. [[Luigi Menabrea]], a young Italian engineer and the future [[Prime Minister of Italy]], transcribed Babbage's lecture into French, and this transcript was subsequently published in the ''[[Bibliothèque universelle de Genève]]'' in October 1842. Babbage's friend [[Charles Wheatstone]] commissioned Lovelace to translate Menabrea's paper into English.
During a nine-month period in 1842–43, Lovelace translated Menabrea's article.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Velma R. |last1=Huskey |author-link1=Velma Huskey |first2=Harry D. |last2=Huskey |author-link2=Harry Huskey |title=Lady Lovelace and Charles Babbage |journal=Annals of the History of Computing |volume=2 |number=4 |pages=299–329 |date=1980 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.1980.10042|s2cid=2640048 }}</ref> She augmented the paper with seven notes, A to G, about three times longer than the translation.{{Sfn|Menabrea|1843}} The translation and notes were then published in the September 1843 edition of Taylor's ''[[Scientific Memoirs]]'' under her initials ''AAL''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Green |first=Christopher |url=http://www.yorku.ca/christo/papers/Babbage-CogSci.htm |title=Charles Babbage, the Analytical Engine, and the Possibility of a 19th-Century Cognitive Science |publisher=York University |year=2001 |access-date=2 September 2018}}</ref>
{{anchor|Ada Byron's notes on the analytical engine}}
Explaining the Analytical Engine's function was a difficult task; many other scientists did not grasp the concept and the British establishment had shown little interest in it.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=265}} Lovelace's notes even had to explain how the Analytical Engine differed from the original Difference Engine.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=267}} Her work was well received at the time; the scientist [[Michael Faraday]] described himself as a supporter of her writing.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=307}}
===Babbage's preface===
Lovelace and Babbage had a minor falling out when the papers were published, when he tried to leave his own statement (criticising the government's treatment of his Engine) as an unsigned preface, which could have been mistakenly interpreted as a joint declaration. When [[Richard Taylor (editor)|Taylor]]'s ''[[Scientific Memoirs]]'' ruled that the statement should be signed, Babbage wrote to Lovelace asking her to withdraw the paper. This was the first that she knew he was leaving it unsigned, and she wrote back refusing to withdraw the paper. The historian [[Benjamin Woolley]] theorised that "His actions suggested he had so enthusiastically sought Ada's involvement, and so happily indulged her ... because of her 'celebrated name'."{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=277–80}} Their friendship recovered, and they continued to correspond. On 12 August 1851, when she was dying of cancer, Lovelace wrote to him asking him to be her executor, though this letter did not give him the necessary legal authority. Part of the terrace at Worthy Manor was known as ''Philosopher's Walk;'' it was there that Lovelace and Babbage were reputed to have walked while discussing mathematical principles.{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|p=307}}
===First published computer program===
{{main|Note G}}
[[File:Diagram for the computation of Bernoulli numbers.jpg|thumb|Lovelace's diagram from "[[Note G]]", the first published computer [[algorithm]]|alt=Diagram for the computation by the Engine of the Numbers of Bernoulli]]
The notes are important in the early [[history of computers]], especially since [[Note G]]<ref name="fourmilab.ch">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html|title=Sketch of ''The Analytical Engine'', with notes upon the Memoir by the Translator|publisher=fourmilab.ch|place=Switzerland|date=October 1842|access-date=28 March 2014}}</ref> described, in complete detail, a method for calculating a sequence of [[Bernoulli numbers]] using the Analytical Engine, which might have run correctly had it ever been built.<ref name="adaslegacy" /> Though Babbage's personal notes from 1837 to 1840 contain the first programs for the engine,{{sfn|Bromley|1982|p=215}}{{sfn|Bromley|1990|p=89}}<ref>{{cite web|author=Ventana al Conocimiento |url=https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/ada-lovelace-original-and-visionary-but-no-programmer/ |title=Ada Lovelace: Original and Visionary, but No Programmer |date=9 December 2015|archive-date=March 25, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325214741/https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/ada-lovelace-original-and-visionary-but-no-programmer/}}</ref> the [[algorithm]] in Note G is often called the first published computer program. The engine was never completed and so the program was never tested.{{sfn|Kim|Toole|1999}}
In 1953, more than a century after her death, Ada Lovelace's notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine were republished as an appendix to [[B. V. Bowden]]'s ''Faster than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines''.<ref>{{Cite book |editor=Bowden, B.V. |date=1953 |title=Faster than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines |url=https://archive.org/details/fasterthanthough00bvbo |publisher=Pitman |place=London |oclc=1053355 |ol=13581728M}}</ref> The engine has now been recognised as an early model for a computer and her notes as a description of a computer and software.<ref name="adaslegacy">{{cite book |editor1-first= Robin |editor1-last= Hammerman |editor2-first=Andrew L. |editor2-last= Russell| title=Ada's Legacy: Cultures of Computing from the Victorian to the Digital Age |publisher=Morgan & Claypool |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-97000-149-5 |doi=10.1145/2809523|s2cid= 62018931 }}</ref>
====Controversy over
Based on this work, Lovelace is often called the first computer programmer<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Haugtvedt |first1=Erica |last2=Abata |first2=Duane |date=2021 |title=Ada Lovelace: First Computer Programmer and Hacker? |url=http://peer.asee.org/36646 |journal=ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access |publisher=ASEE Conferences |doi=10.18260/1-2--36646}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Beverley |title=Ada Lovelace: The World's First Computer Programmer |publisher=Pen & Sword History |year=2023 |isbn=9781399082532 |___location=Philadelphia, USA}}</ref> and her method has been called the world's first computer program.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gleick |first=James |author-link=James Gleick |year=2011 |title=[[The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood]] |___location=London |publisher=Fourth Estate |pages=116–118}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Simonite|first=Tom|url=https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/ada-lovelace-day.html|title=Short Sharp Science: Celebrating Ada Lovelace: the 'world's first programmer'| work=[[New Scientist]] |date=24 March 2009|archive-date=27 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327073325/https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/ada-lovelace-day.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Parker|first1=Matt|title=Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension|date=2014|publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux|isbn=978-0-374-27565-5|page=261}}</ref>
Eugene Eric Kim and Betty Alexandra Toole consider it "incorrect" to regard Lovelace as the first computer programmer.{{sfn|Kim|Toole|1999}} Babbage claims credit in his autobiography for the algorithm in Note G,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Babbage |first=Charles |url=https://archive.org/details/passagesfromlife0000babb/mode/2up |title=Passages from the life of a philosopher |date=1864 |publisher=New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press ; Piscataway, N.J. : IEEE Press |others=Internet Archive |quote=We discussed together the various illustrations that might be introduced: I suggested several, but the selection was entirely her own. So also was the algebraic working out of the different problems, except, indeed, that relating to the numbers of Bernouilli, which I had offered to do to save Lady Lovelace the trouble. This she sent back to me for an amendment, having detected a grave mistake which I had made in the process.}} New edition 1994.{{isbn|978-0-8135-2066-7}}</ref> and regardless of the extent of Lovelace's contribution to it, she was not the very first person to write a program for the Analytical Engine, as Babbage had written the initial programs for it, although the majority were never published.{{sfn|Kim|Toole|1999}} Bromley notes several dozen sample programs prepared by Babbage between 1837 and 1840, all substantially predating Lovelace's notes.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bromley |first=Allan G. |date=July–September 1982 |title=Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1838 |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |url=http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf |pages=197–217 |volume=4 |issue=3 |doi=10.1109/mahc.1982.10028 |s2cid=2285332 |access-date=25 December 2015 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226094829/http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf |url-status=dead }} p. 197.</ref> [[Dorothy K. Stein]] regards Lovelace's notes as "more a reflection of the mathematical uncertainty of the author, the political purposes of the inventor, and, above all, of the social and cultural context in which it was written, than a blueprint for a scientific development".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stein |first=Dorothy K. |author-link=Dorothy Stein |year=1984 |title=Lady Lovelace's Notes: Technical Text and Cultural Context |journal=Victorian Studies |pages=33–67 |volume=28 |issue=1}} p. 34.</ref>
[[Allan Bromley (historian)|Allan G. Bromley]], in the 1990 article ''Difference and Analytical Engines'':
{{Blockquote|All but one of the programs cited in her notes had been prepared by Babbage from three to seven years earlier. The exception was prepared by Babbage for her, although she did detect a "bug" in it. Not only is there no evidence that Ada ever prepared a program for the Analytical Engine, but her correspondence with Babbage shows that she did not have the knowledge to do so.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bromley |first=Allan G. |author-link=Allan G. Bromley |contribution=Difference and Analytical Engines |title=Computing Before Computers |editor-first=William |editor-last=Aspray |publisher=Iowa State University Press |___location=Ames |pages=59–98 |chapter-url=http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CBC-Ch-02.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CBC-Ch-02.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |date=1990 |isbn=0-8138-0047-1}} p. 89.</ref>}}
Bruce Collier wrote that Lovelace "made a considerable contribution to publicizing the Analytical Engine, but there is no evidence that she advanced the design or theory of it in any way".<ref name="Collier 1990 p.">{{cite book |last=Collier |first=Bruce |title=The Little Engines that Could've: The Calculating Machines of Charles Babbage |date=1990 |publisher=[[Garland Science]] |isbn=0-8240-0043-9 |page=181}}</ref>
[[Doron Swade]] has said that Ada only published the first computer program instead of actually writing it, but agrees that she was the only person to see the potential of the analytical engine as a machine capable of expressing entities other than quantities.<ref>{{cite speech |last=Swade |first=Doron |author-link=Doron Swade |title=Charles Babbage and Difference Engine No. 2 |event=Talks at Google |date=12 May 2008 |___location=Mountain View, CA |publisher=Talks at Google via YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K5p_tBcrd0&t=36m29s | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211122/7K5p_tBcrd0| archive-date=2021-11-22 | url-status=live|access-date=29 November 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
In his book, ''Idea Makers'', [[Stephen Wolfram]] defends Lovelace's contributions. While acknowledging that Babbage wrote several unpublished algorithms for the Analytical Engine prior to Lovelace's notes, Wolfram argues that "there's nothing as sophisticated—or as clean—as Ada's computation of the Bernoulli numbers. Babbage certainly helped and commented on Ada's work, but she was definitely the driver of it." Wolfram then suggests that Lovelace's main achievement was to distill from Babbage's correspondence "a clear exposition of the abstract operation of the machine—something which Babbage never did".<ref name="Wolfram">{{cite book |last=Wolfram |first=Stephen |title=Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People |date=2016 |publisher=Wolfram Media |isbn=978-1-57955-003-5 |pages=45–98}}</ref>
===Insight into potential of computing devices===
In her notes, Ada Lovelace emphasised the difference between the Analytical Engine and previous calculating machines, particularly its ability to be programmed to solve problems of any complexity.{{Sfn|Toole|1998|pp=175–82}} She realised the potential of the device extended far beyond mere number crunching. In her notes, she wrote:
{{Blockquote|[The Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides ''number'', were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine...Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lovelace|first1=Ada|last2=Menabrea|first2=Luigi|title=Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage Esq.|year=1842|journal=[[Scientific Memoirs]]|publisher=Richard Taylor|page=694}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Hooper|first=Rowan|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22385-ada-lovelace-my-brain-is-more-than-merely-mortal.html|title=Ada Lovelace: My brain is more than merely mortal| work=[[New Scientist]] |date=16 October 2012|access-date=16 October 2012}}</ref>}}
This analysis was an important development from previous ideas about the capabilities of computing devices and anticipated the implications of modern computing one hundred years before they were realised. [[Walter Isaacson]] ascribes Ada's insight regarding the application of computing to ''any'' process based on logical symbols to an observation about textiles: "When she saw some [[Jacquard machine|mechanical looms]] that used [[punched cards|punchcards]] to direct the weaving of beautiful [[pattern]]s, it reminded her of how Babbage's engine used punched cards to make calculations."<ref name="Isaacson">{{cite web|url=http://fortune.com/2014/09/18/walter-isaacson-the-women-of-eniac/ |title=Walter Isaacson on the Women of ENIAC |last=Isaacson |first=Walter | authorlink=Walter Isaacson |date=18 September 2014 |work=[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]}}</ref> This insight is seen as significant by writers such as Betty Toole and Benjamin Woolley, as well as the programmer [[John Graham-Cumming]], whose project Plan 28 has the aim of constructing the first complete Analytical Engine.{{Sfn|Toole|1998|pp=2–3, 14}}{{Sfn|Woolley|1999|pp=272–77}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Ken t|first=Leo |url=http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/8947/the-10-year-plan-to-build-babbages-analytical-engine |title=The 10-year-plan to build Babbage's Analytical Engine |publisher=Humans Invent |date=17 September 2012 |access-date=16 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014123843/http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/8947/the-10-year-plan-to-build-babbages-analytical-engine |archive-date=14 October 2012 |url-status=usurped}}</ref>
According to the historian of computing and Babbage specialist [[Doron Swade]]:
<blockquote>Ada saw something that Babbage in some sense failed to see. In Babbage's world his engines were bound by number...What Lovelace saw...was that number could represent entities other than quantity. So once you had a machine for manipulating numbers, if those numbers represented other things, letters, musical notes, then the machine could manipulate symbols of which number was one instance, according to rules. It is this fundamental transition from a machine which is a number cruncher to a machine for manipulating symbols according to rules that is the fundamental transition from calculation to computation—to general-purpose computation—and looking back from the present high ground of modern computing, if we are looking and sifting history for that transition, then that transition was made explicitly by Ada in that 1843 paper.{{Sfn|Fuegi|Francis|2003}}</blockquote>
''[[Note G]]'' also contains Lovelace's dismissal of [[artificial intelligence]]. She wrote that "The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to ''originate'' anything. It can do ''whatever we know how to order it'' to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths." This objection has been the subject of much debate and rebuttal, for example by [[Alan Turing]] in his paper "[[Computing Machinery and Intelligence]]".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CEMYUU_HFMAC&pg=PA67 |journal=The Turing Test: Verbal Behavior as the Hallmark of Intelligence |editor=Stuart Shieber |title=Computing Machinery and Intelligence |author=Turing, Alan |pages=67–104 |publisher=MIT Press |year=2004|isbn=978-0-262-26542-3 }}</ref> Most modern computer scientists argue that this view is outdated and that computer software can develop in ways that cannot necessarily be anticipated by programmers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Natale |first1=Simone |last2=Henrickson |first2=Leah |date=2022-03-04 |title=The Lovelace effect: Perceptions of creativity in machines |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221077278 |journal=New Media & Society |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=1909–1926 |doi=10.1177/14614448221077278 |s2cid=247267997 |issn=1461-4448 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127000000/https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221077278 |archive-date=27 January 2022 |access-date=9 March 2022 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} [https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/182906/ Alt URL]</ref>
===Distinction between mechanism and logical structure===
Lovelace recognized the difference between the details of the computing mechanism, as covered in an 1834 article on the Difference Engine,<ref name=edinburgh1834>{{Cite journal|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Review/Volume_59/Babbage%27s_Calculating_Engine |last=Lardner|first= D.|title=Babbage's calculating engine|journal= Edinburgh Review|date=July 1834|pages= 263–327|quote= In WikiSource and also reprinted in ''The works of Charles Babbage,'' Vol 2, p.119ff|access-date=11 October 2022}}</ref>
and the logical structure of the Analytical Engine, on which the article she was reviewing dwelt. She noted that different specialists might be required in each area.
<blockquote>The [1834 article] chiefly treats it under its mechanical aspect, entering but slightly into the mathematical principles of which that engine is the representative, but giving, in considerable length, many details of the mechanism and contrivances by means of which it tabulates the various orders of differences. M. Menabrea, on the contrary, exclusively develops the analytical view; taking it for granted that mechanism is able to perform certain processes, but without attempting to explain how; and devoting his whole attention to explanations and illustrations of the manner in which analytical laws can be so arranged and combined as to bring every branch of that vast subject within the grasp of the assumed powers of mechanism. It is obvious that, in the invention of a calculating engine, these two branches of the subject are equally essential fields of investigation... They are indissolubly connected, though so different in their intrinsic nature, that perhaps the same mind might not be likely to prove equally profound or successful in both.<ref name="fourmilab.ch" />{{rp|Note A}}
</blockquote>
==Commemoration<!--'Ada Lovelace Day' redirects here-->==
[[File:AdaLovelaceplaque.JPG|thumb|left|upright|[[Blue plaque]] to Ada Lovelace in [[St James's Square]], London|alt=Plaque to Ada Lovelace that reads "English Heritage, Ada Countess of Lovelace, 1815–1852, Pioneer of Computing lived here"]]
The computer language [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]], created on behalf of the [[United States Department of Defense]], was named after Lovelace.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ada Lovelace {{!}} Lemelson |url=https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/ada-lovelace |access-date=2025-07-16 |website=lemelson.mit.edu}}</ref> The reference manual for the language was approved on 10 December 1980 and the [[United States Military Standard|Department of Defense Military Standard]] for the language, ''MIL-STD-1815'', was given the number of the year of her birth.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Deffree |first=Suzanne |date=2019-12-10 |title=Ada Lovelace is born, December 10, 1815 |url=https://www.edn.com/ada-lovelace-is-born-december-10-1815/ |access-date=2025-07-16 |website=EDN |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 1981, the [[Association for Women in Computing]] inaugurated its [[Ada Lovelace Award]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6z0aAQAAMAAJ&q=the+Augusta+Ada+Lovelace+Award+by+the+Association+for+Women+in+Computing |title=Awards, Honors & Prizes: United States and Canada |last=Webster |first=Valerie J. |date=2000 |publisher=Gale Group |isbn=978-0-7876-3401-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref name =Award>{{cite web
| url =http://awc-hq.org/ada-lovelace-awards.html | title=Association for Women in Computing | access-date=1 June 2017}}</ref> {{as of|1998}}, the [[British Computer Society]] (BCS) has awarded the [[Lovelace Medal]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5822|title=Lovelace Lecture & Medal|publisher=[[British Computer Society|BCS]] |archive-date=26 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060826081022/https://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5822 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and in 2008 initiated an annual competition for women students.<ref name=BCSWomen /> [[BCSWomen]] sponsors the Lovelace Colloquium, an annual conference for women undergraduates.<ref name=BCSWomen>{{cite web | url=http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/cs/lovelace-colloquium/ | ___location=UK | title=BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium | access-date=4 March 2014 | archive-date=22 February 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222035717/http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/cs/lovelace-colloquium/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[Ada, the National College for Digital Skills]], is a specialist [[Further education|college of further education]] and [[higher education]] in England, focused on digital skills. The college has campuses in [[London]] ([[Pimlico]]) and [[Manchester]] ([[Ancoats]]). The college teaches degree-level apprenticeship, as well as a sixth-form college for students aged 16 to 19.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Davis |first1=Anna |date=10 March 2016 |title=New college in north London 'will boost women in tech sector' |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/new-college-in-north-london-will-boost-women-in-tech-sector-a3200201.html |access-date=16 March 2016 |website=London Evening Standard}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.ada.ac.uk/_site/data/files/governance/0C8EE0AAEFF14E5148C41F1AE4D0E9C3.pdf |title=Inspection of Ada, the National College for Digital Skills |date=March 14-17, 2023 |publisher=[[Ofsted]] |access-date=December 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718085354/https://www.ada.ac.uk/_site/data/files/governance/0C8EE0AAEFF14E5148C41F1AE4D0E9C3.pdf |archive-date=July 18, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Ada Lovelace Day]] is an annual event celebrated on the second Tuesday of October,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ada Lovelace Day – Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths |url=https://findingada.com/ |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=findingada.com}}</ref> which began in 2009.<ref name="Independent 2009">{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/ada-lovelace-day-first-computer-programmer-forgotten-women-a8557416.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008121529/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/ada-lovelace-day-first-computer-programmer-forgotten-women-a8557416.html |archive-date=2018-10-08 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Ada Lovelace Day: We should never forget the first computer programmer|date=8 October 2018|website=The Independent|access-date=27 February 2019}}</ref> Its goal is to "... raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths," and to "create new role models for girls and women" in these fields.<ref name="Independent 2009"/> Events have included Wikipedia [[edit-a-thons]] with the aim of improving the representation of women on Wikipedia in terms of articles and editors to reduce unintended [[gender bias on Wikipedia]].
The [[Ada Initiative]] was a non-profit organisation dedicated to increasing the involvement of women in the [[free culture movement|free culture]] and [[Open-source software movement|open source movements]].<ref>{{citation |url=https://lwn.net/Articles/471813/ |title=An update on the Ada Initiative |work=LWN | last=Aurora | first=Valerie |date=13 December 2011 | access-date= 5 October 2012}}</ref>
The building of the department of Engineering Mathematics at the [[University of Bristol]] is called the Ada Lovelace Building.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Ada Lovelace Building: a new home for Engineering Mathematics at Bristol |url=https://engineering.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/ada-lovelace-building-new-home-engineering-maths/ |website=University of Bristol |date=8 October 2020 |access-date=22 January 2024}}</ref>
The Engineering in Computer Science and Telecommunications College building in [[Zaragoza University]] is called the Ada Byron Building.<ref>{{cite web | title=Ada Byron Building | url=http://wikimapia.org/1641862/Ada-Byron-Building}}</ref>
The computer centre in the village of [[Porlock]], near where Lovelace lived, is named after her.
Ada Lovelace House is a council-owned building in [[Kirkby-in-Ashfield]], Nottinghamshire, near where Lovelace spent her infancy.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.chad.co.uk/news/town-centre-landmark-renovated-to-boost-kirkby-s-economy-1-8538257|title=Town-centre landmark renovated to boost Kirkby's economy|date=11 May 2017|work=Mansfield and Ashfield Chad|access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://woodhead-construction.co.uk/ada-lovelace-house-officially-opened/|title=Ada Lovelace House Is Officially Opened|date=18 October 2017|publisher=Woodhead Construction|access-date=29 November 2018|archive-date=16 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516050818/https://woodhead-construction.co.uk/ada-lovelace-house-officially-opened/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 2012, a [[Google Doodle]] and blog post honoured her on her birthday.<ref name="Lovelace Google">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/dec/10/ada-lovelace-honoured-google-doodle|title=Ada Lovelace honoured by Google doodle|date=10 December 2012|newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |___location=London |access-date=10 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blog.google/inside-google/doodles/honouring-computings-1843-visionary/|title=Honouring computing's 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace |work=[[Google Doodle]]s |date=9 December 2012 |access-date=10 December 2012}}</ref> In 2013, [[Ada Developers Academy]] was founded and named after her. Its mission is to diversify tech by providing women and gender-diverse people the skills, experience, and community support to become professional software developers to change the face of tech.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://adadevelopersacademy.org/history/|access-date=2021-02-23|website=Ada Developers Academy|language=en-US}}</ref> On 17 September 2013, the [[BBC Radio 4]] biography programme ''[[Great Lives]]'' devoted an episode to Ada Lovelace; she was sponsored by TV presenter [[Konnie Huq]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Series 31, Konnie Huq on Ada Lovelace|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03b0ydy|website=[[Great Lives]]|publisher=[[BBC Radio 4]]}}</ref>
[[File:Ada Lovelace statue 2024-10-03.jpg|thumb|Lovelace statue in Millbank, City of Westminster, London]]
As of November 2015, all new [[British passport]]s have included an illustration of Lovelace and Babbage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473495/HMPO_magazine.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473495/HMPO_magazine.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Introducing the new UK passport design|publisher=HM Passport Office|access-date=20 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2015/nov/03/new-uk-passport-design-in-pictures|title=New UK passport design – in pictures|first=All photographs: HM Passport|last=Office|date=3 November 2015|website=The Guardian}}</ref> In 2017, a Google Doodle honoured her with other women on [[International Women's Day]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/international-womens-day-2017/|title=International Women's Day 2017 |work=[[Google Doodle]]s |date=8 March 2017 |access-date=8 March 2017}}</ref> On 2 February 2018, [[Satellogic]], a high-resolution [[Earth observation]] imaging and analytics company, launched a [[ÑuSat]] type [[Small satellite|micro-satellite]] named in honour of Ada Lovelace.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/02/china-lofts-earthquake-research-craft-with-cluster-of-smaller-satellites/|title=China lofts earthquake research craft with cluster of smaller satellites |first=Stephen |last=Clark |work=Spaceflight Now |date=2018-02-02|access-date=4 February 2018}}</ref> In March 2018, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published a belated obituary for Ada Lovelace.<ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Claire Cain |date=8 March 2018 |title=A gifted mathematician who is now recognized as the first computer programmer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-ada-lovelace.html |url-access=registration |access-date=2023-01-25 |work=[[The New York Times]] |id={{ProQuest|2611777591}}}}</ref>
On 27 July 2018, [[Ron Wyden|Senator Ron Wyden]] submitted, in the [[United States Senate]], the designation of 9 October 2018 as National Ada Lovelace Day: "To honor the life and contributions of Ada Lovelace as a leading woman in science and mathematics". The resolution (S.Res.592)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-resolution/592|title=S.Res.592 – 115th Congress (2017–2018): A resolution designating 9 October 2018, as "National Ada Lovelace Day" and honoring the life and legacy of Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer.|last=Ron|first=Wyden|date=25 July 2018|website=congress.gov|access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref> was considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by unanimous consent. In November 2020 it was announced that [[Trinity College Dublin]], whose library had previously held forty busts, all of them of men, was commissioning four new busts of women, one of whom was to be Lovelace. The four new busts (Ada Lovelace, Mary Wollstonecraft, Augusta Gregory and Rosalind Franklin) were unveiled on February 1st 2023 <ref>{{cite news |first=Sarah |last=Burns |title=Four new statues to end Trinity Long Room's 'men only' image |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/four-new-statues-to-end-trinity-long-room-s-men-only-image-1.4420412 |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |date=2020-11-26|access-date=29 November 2020}}</ref>
{{external media | width=210px | float=right | headerimage= | video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO2P27tI57k “9 Millbank : Ada Lovelace Sculpture Takes Her Place In Westminster St Edward”], 7 March 2022.}}
In March 2022, a statue of Ada Lovelace was installed at the site of the former Ergon House in the [[City of Westminster]], London, honouring its scientific history. The redevelopment was part of a complex with [[Imperial Chemical House]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Millbank & Ergon House |url=https://www.ericparryarchitects.co.uk/projects/millbank-ergon-house/ |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=Eric Parry |language=en-GB}}</ref> The statue was sculpted by Etienne and Mary Millner and based on the portrait by [[Margaret Sarah Carpenter]]. The sculpture was unveiled on International Women's Day, 2022. It stands on the 7th floor of Millbank Quarter overlooking the junction of Dean Bradley Street and [[Horseferry Road]].<ref name="Millner">{{cite web |title=Public Art Proposal for Ergon House For approval by Westminster City Council |url=https://docs.planning.org.uk/20210218/115/QOKTUIRPJVB00/jpazhx47qxqil6un.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://docs.planning.org.uk/20210218/115/QOKTUIRPJVB00/jpazhx47qxqil6un.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |website=Planning Alerts – Document Repository |access-date=7 March 2022}}</ref><!-- add citations tomorrow once it is unveiled; mention punch card puzzle -->
In September 2022, [[Nvidia]] announced the [[Ada Lovelace (microarchitecture)|Ada Lovelace]] [[graphics processing unit]] [[microarchitecture|(GPU) microarchitecture]].<ref name="ArsTechnica">{{cite news|url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/nvidias-ada-lovelace-gpu-generation-1599-for-rtx-4090-899-and-up-for-4080/|title=Nvidia's Ada Lovelace GPU generation: $1,599 for RTX 4090, $899 and up for 4080|author=Sam Machkovec|date=20 September 2022|work=Ars Technica}}</ref> In July 2023, the [[Royal Mint]] issued four commemorative [[Commemorative coins of the United Kingdom#Two pounds|£2 coins]] in various metals to "honour the innovative contributions of computer science visionary Ada Lovelace and her legacy as a female trailblazer."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rigby |first1=John |title=Coins |url=https://www.royalmint.com/shop/commemorative/innovation/ada-lovelace/ |website=Royal Mint |access-date=31 July 2023}}</ref>
===Bicentenary (2015)===
The [[Anniversary|bicentenary]] of Ada Lovelace's birth was celebrated with a number of events, including:<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Ada Lovelace Day |url=http://findingada.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228135139/http://findingada.com/ |archive-date=28 December 2015 |website=Findingada.com |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''The Ada Lovelace Bicentenary Lectures on [[Computability]]'', [[Israel Institute for Advanced Studies]], 20 December 2015 – 31 January 2016.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://findingada.com/event/ada-lovelace-bicentenary-lectures-on-computability/ | title=Ada Lovelace Bicentenary Lectures on Computability | date=31 January 2016 | work=Ada Lovelace Day | publisher=FindingAda.com | access-date=11 January 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.as.huji.ac.il/adalovelacelectures | title=The Ada Lovelace Bicentenary Lectures on Computability | date=31 January 2016 | publisher=Israel Institute for Advanced Studies | access-date=11 January 2016 }}</ref>
* ''Ada Lovelace Symposium'', [[University of Oxford]], 13–14 October 2015.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/ada-lovelace-symposium-celebrating-200-years-computer-visionary | title=Ada Lovelace Symposium – Celebrating 200 Years of a Computer Visionary | work=Podcasts | date=18 December 2015 | publisher=University of Oxford | ___location=UK | access-date=11 January 2016 }}</ref>
* ''Ada.Ada.Ada'', a one-woman show about the life and work of Ada Lovelace (using an LED dress), premiered at [[Edinburgh International Science Festival]] on 11 April 2015,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/brochure-downloads|title=Brochure Downloads|website=[[Edinburgh International Science Festival]]|access-date=9 October 2018|archive-date=1 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601063619/https://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/brochure-downloads|url-status=dead}}</ref> and continued to touring internationally to promote diversity on STEM at technology conferences,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2018/04/19/actualidad/1524125257_350138.html|title=4.400 bombillas para la silenciada historia de la mujer que escribió la primera 'app' en 1843|trans-title=4,400 light bulbs for the silenced story of the woman who wrote the first 'app' in 1843|last=Busquets|first=Jordi Pueyo|date=19 April 2018|work=[[El País]]|access-date=9 October 2018|language=es|issn=1134-6582}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.siliconrepublic.com/discovery/ada-lovelace-day-zoe-philpott-inspirefest|title=Meet the woman bringing the magic of Ada Lovelace to the masses|last=Gorey|first=Colm|date=11 October 2016|website=Silicon Republic|access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref> businesses, government and educational organisations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://adatheshow.com/ |title=Ada.Ada.Ada. |year=2016 |website=adatheshow.com}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Scratchweb|title=Ada.Ada.Ada|date=16 May 2017|url=https://vimeo.com/217701947|access-date=9 October 2018}}</ref>
Special exhibitions were displayed by the [[Science Museum, London|Science Museum]] in London, England<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/ada-lovelace | title=Ada Lovelace |publisher=Science Museum, London | ___location=UK | access-date=11 January 2016 }}</ref> and the [[Weston Library]] (part of the [[Bodleian Library]]) in [[Oxford]], England.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/weston/news/2015/oct-09 | title=Bodleian Libraries celebrates Ada Lovelace's 200th birthday with free display and Wikipedia editathons | publisher=[[Bodleian Libraries]] | ___location=UK | access-date=11 January 2016 }}</ref>
==In popular culture==
[[File:Ada Lovelace color.svg|thumb|upright|An illustration inspired by the [[A. E. Chalon]] portrait created for the [[Ada Initiative]], which supported open technology and women|alt=Illustration of Ada Lovelace's portrait in a gold frame]]
===Novels and plays===
Lovelace is portrayed in [[Romulus Linney (playwright)|Romulus Linney]]'s 1977 play ''[[Childe Byron]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Klein |first=Alvin |author-link=Alvin Klein |date=13 May 1984 |title=Theatre in review: A lusty Byron in Rockland |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/13/nyregion/theater-in-review-a-lusty-byron-in-rockland.html |url-access=limited |id={{ProQuest|425075032}} |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> In [[Tom Stoppard]]'s 1993 play ''[[Arcadia (play)|Arcadia]]'', the precocious teenage genius Thomasina Coverly—a character "apparently based" on Ada Lovelace (the play also involves [[Lord Byron]])—comes to understand [[chaos theory]], and theorises the [[second law of thermodynamics]], before either is officially recognised.<ref name="newyorker13">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/tom-stoppards-arcadia-at-twenty |title=Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia,' at Twenty |first=Brad |last=Leithauser |date=8 August 2013 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref><ref>[http://www.tomw.net.au/arcadia.txt Profile], Gale Edwards, 1994, Director of "Arcadia" for the Sydney Theatre Company</ref>
In the 1990 [[steampunk]] novel ''[[The Difference Engine]]'' by [[William Gibson]] and [[Bruce Sterling]],<ref>{{cite book |contribution=The Future Looms: Weaving Women and Cybernetics |first=Sadie|last=Plant |pages=45–64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXU5aoJL0-QC&pg=PA45 |title=Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk: Cultures of Technological Embodiment |editor1-first=Mike |editor1-last=Featherstone |editor2-first=Roger |editor2-last=Burrows |publisher=SAGE Publications, in association with Theory, Culture & Society, School of Human Studies, University of Teesside |year=1995 |isbn=978-1-84860-914-3}}</ref> Lovelace delivers a lecture on the "punched cards" programme which proves [[Gödel's incompleteness theorems]] decades before their actual discovery. Lovelace and [[Mary Shelley]] as teenagers are the central characters in [[Jordan Stratford]]'s steampunk series, ''The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Moyer |first1=Edward |title=Can Jane Austen + steampunk spark girls' science fire? |url=https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/can-jane-austen-steampunk-spark-girls-science-fire/ |access-date=26 February 2017 |date=13 April 2012}}</ref>
Lovelace features in [[John Crowley (author)|John Crowley]]'s 2005 novel, ''Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land'', as an unseen character whose personality is forcefully depicted in her annotations and anti-heroic efforts to archive her father's lost novel.<ref>{{cite web |title=Byron's heir |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jun-05-bk-straub5-story.html |first=Peter |last=Straub |author-link=Peter Straub |date=5 June 2005 |archive-date=10 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110092446/https://articles.latimes.com/2005/jun/05/books/bk-straub5 |url-status=live}}</ref>
The 2015 play ''Ada and the Engine'' by [[Lauren Gunderson]] portrays Lovelace and Charles Babbage in unrequited love, and it imagines a post-death meeting between Lovelace and her father.<ref name="kqed">{{cite web |url=http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/ada-and-the-memory-engine/ |title=Ada and the Memory Engine |first= Sam |last=Hurwitt |publisher=KQED |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906141059/https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/the-do-list/ada-and-the-memory-engine/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="sfweekly">{{cite web |url=http://www.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2015/10/22/ada-and-the-memory-engine-love-by-the-numbers |title=Ada and the Memory Engine: Love by the Numbers |work=[[SF Weekly]] |date=22 October 2015 |access-date=14 November 2015 |author=Costello, Elizabeth |archive-date=6 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406052014/http://www.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2015/10/22/ada-and-the-memory-engine-love-by-the-numbers |url-status=dead }}</ref> Lovelace and Babbage are also the main characters in [[Sydney Padua]]'s webcomic and graphic novel ''[[The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage]]''. The comic features extensive footnotes on the history of Ada Lovelace, and many lines of dialogue are drawn from actual correspondence.<ref>{{cite web |last=Doctorow |first=Cory |title=Comic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage |url=http://boingboing.net/2009/10/05/comic-about-ada-love.html |website=BoingBoing |access-date=10 October 2014 |date=5 October 2009}}</ref>
===Film and television===
In the 1997 film ''[[Conceiving Ada]]'', a computer scientist obsessed with Ada finds a way of communicating with her in the past by means of "undying information waves".<ref>{{cite web |last=Holden |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Holden |date=26 February 1999 |title='Conceiving Ada': Calling Byron's Daughter, Inventor of a Computer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/film/022699ada-film-review.html |id={{ProQuest|2235172968}} |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>
Lovelace, identified as Ada Augusta Byron, is portrayed by Lily Lesser in the second series of ''[[The Frankenstein Chronicles]]'' aired on ITV in 2017.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6651616/characters/nm7104940/?ref_=ttfc_fcr_cst_11 |title="The Frankenstein Chronicles" Not John Marlott (TV Episode 2017) - Lilit Lesser as Ada Byron - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2025-04-29 |via=www.imdb.com}}</ref> She is employed as an "analyst" to provide the workings of a life-sized humanoid automaton. The brass workings of the machine are reminiscent of Babbage's analytical engine. Her employment is described as keeping her occupied until she returns to her studies in advanced mathematics.<ref>{{cite web|title=Episode 2 - Not John Marlott|url=http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep2week45/frankenstein-chronicles|website=ITV Press Centre|access-date=10 February 2025}}</ref>
"Lovelace" is the name of the operating system designed by the character Cameron Howe in ''[[Halt and Catch Fire (TV series)|Halt and Catch Fire]]'', which aired on [[AMC (TV channel)|AMC]] in the US in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whatchareading.com/still-fire-recapreview-halt-catch-fire-adventure/ |title=Still On Fire: Recap/Review of Halt and Catch Fire "Adventure" |last=Biscotti |first=Steven |date=25 May 2015 |access-date=20 August 2023 |website=What'cha Reading?}}</ref>
In the documentary ''Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing'' (2015), Dr Hannah Fry covers the life of Ada Lovelace.<ref>{{cite web|title=Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030s5bx|website=BBC|access-date=15 June 2025}}</ref>
Lovelace and Babbage appear as characters in the [[Victoria (British TV series)|second season]] of the ITV series ''[[Victoria (UK TV series)|Victoria]]'' (2017). [[Emerald Fennell]] portrays Lovelace in the episode, "The Green-Eyed Monster."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6327804/ |title=The Green-Eyed Monster |date=14 January 2018|website=IMDb}}</ref>
Lovelace features as a character in "[[Spyfall (Doctor Who)|Spyfall, Part 2]]", the second episode of [[Doctor Who (series 12)|''Doctor Who'', series 12]], which first aired on [[BBC One]] on 5 January 2020.<ref name="DW">{{cite web|url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/historical-computing-pioneer-ada-lovelace-3727259 |title=Historical computing pioneer Ada Lovelace from Hinckley stars in BBC's Doctor Who |date=2020-01-13 |last=Dawson |first=Nick |work=[[Leicester Mercury]] |access-date=2020-12-14}}</ref> The character was portrayed by Sylvie Briggs, alongside characterisations of Charles Babbage and [[Noor Inayat Khan]].<ref name="DW"/>
===Computing and STEM===
* [[Ada Lovelace Day]]
* A [[computer language]], initially developed by the [[United States Department of Defense|US Department of Defense]], is called [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]].
* The [[Lovelace Medal]] awarded by the [[British Computer Society]] (BCS).
* The Lovelace Lectures at the BCS sponsored by the [[Alan Turing Institute]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2021/may/bcs-lovelace-lecture-202021-prof-marta-kwiatkowska/|title=BCS Lovelace Lecture 2020/21 - Prof Marta Kwiatkowska | BCS|website=www.bcs.org}}</ref>
* The Lovelace Lectures at [[Durham University]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/engineering/about-us/departmental-lectures/lovelace-lecture-series/|title=Lovelace Lecture Series - Durham University|first=Durham|last=University|website=www.durham.ac.uk}}</ref>
* The [[Ada Lovelace Award]] awarded by the [[Association for Women in Computing]]
* The [[Ada Initiative]] supporting open technology and women is named after her.
* Ada Lovelace Building, the engineering mathematics building at the [[University of Bristol]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-08 |title=The Ada Lovelace Building: a home for Engineering Mathematics at Bristol |url=https://engineering.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/ada-lovelace-building-new-home-engineering-maths/ |access-date=2025-03-23 |website=engineering.blogs.bristol.ac.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref>
* Ada Lovelace Building, in [[Exeter Science Park]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kta.uk.com/projects/ada-lovelace-building/|title=Ada Lovelace Building|website=kat.uk}}</ref>
* Ada Byron Building, in the Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering at the [[University of Zaragoza]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://webdiis.unizar.es/gaz/___location | title=Ada Byron Building|website=webdiis.unizar.es }}</ref>
* Ada Byron Research Centre in [[University of Malaga]], [[Andalucía]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ada Byron Research Centre - Home - University of Malaga |url=https://www.uma.es/adabyron/?set_language=en |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=www.uma.es}}</ref>
* Ada Lovelace Institute, a think tank dedicated to ensuring data and AI work for people and society.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ada Lovelace Institute |url=https://www.turing.ac.uk/research/research-projects/ada-lovelace-institute |access-date=6 March 2025 |work=[[Alan Turing Institute]]}}</ref>
* Ada Lovelace Centre for Digital Scholarship, Oxford{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
* Ada Lovelace Center for Digital Humanities at the [[FU Berlin]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ada.fu-berlin.de | title=Ada Lovelace Center for Digital Humanities in Berlin |website=ada.fu-berlin.de}}</ref>
* ADA Lovelace Centre for Analytics, Data, Applications at [[Fraunhofer IIS]] originally called the ''ADA Lovelace Centre for Artificial Intelligence''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/profil/zukunftsinitiativen/adacenter.html|title=ADA Lovelace Center for Analytics, Data, Applications|website=Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS}}</ref>
* Ada Lovelace Excellence Scholarship at the [[University of Southampton]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ada Lovelace Excellence Scholarship {{!}} Electronics and Computer Science {{!}} University of Southampton |url=https://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Ada-scholarship |access-date=2025-03-23 |website=www.ecs.soton.ac.uk}}</ref>
* [[Adafruit Industries]]
* Ada Lovelace Centre, part of the [[Science and Technology Facilities Council]], a UK government agency that carries out research in science and engineering.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adalovelacecentre.ac.uk/about-us/|title=Science and Technology Facilities Council: About us|website=adalovelacecentre.ac.uk|date=20 March 2024}}</ref>
* The [[Cardano (blockchain platform)|Cardano cryptocurrency platform]], launched in 2017, uses ''Ada'' as the name for the [[cryptocurrency]] and ''Lovelace'' as the smallest sub-unit of an Ada.<ref name="Cardano">{{Cite web |date=19 March 2021 |title=Cardano (ADA) is now available on Coinbase |url=https://blog.coinbase.com/cardano-ada-is-now-available-on-coinbase-dd30c1e0d93a |access-date=5 April 2021 |website=[[Coinbase]] |quote=The blockchain's native token, ADA, is named after the 19th century mathematician, Ada Lovelace |archive-date=20 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920171211/https://blog.coinbase.com/cardano-ada-is-now-available-on-coinbase-dd30c1e0d93a |url-status=live}}</ref>
* Ada, an artwork incorporating artificial intelligence house at [[Microsoft]]'s Building 99.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/ada/|title=Ada|website=[[Microsoft]] }}</ref>
* In 2021, the code name of [[Nvidia]]'s [[Graphics processing unit|GPU]] architecture in its [[GeForce 40 series|RTX 4000]] series is [[Ada Lovelace (microarchitecture)|Ada Lovelace]]. It is the first Nvidia architecture to feature both a first and last name.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hampton |first=Jaime |date=20 September 2022 |title=Nvidia Introduces New Ada Lovelace GPU Architecture, OVX Systems, Omniverse Cloud |url=https://www.hpcwire.com/2022/09/20/nvidia-introduces-new-ada-lovelace-architecture-ovx-systems-omniverse-cloud/ |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=HPCwire |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Aaron Klotz |date=20 September 2022 |title=GeForce RTX 4090, RTX 4080 GPU Roundup |url=https://www.tomshardware.com/news/geforce-rtx-4090-rtx-4080-gpu-roundup |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=Tom's Hardware |language=en}}</ref>
* Ada Byron University Programming Contest at the [[Polytechnic University of Valencia]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://careers.edicomgroup.com/news/ada-byron-university-programming-contest/|title=Ada Byron University Programming Contest of the UPV|first=Content|last=Manager|date=24 February 2020}}</ref>
===Other===
[[File:Ada Countess of Lovelace computer pioneer 1815-1852 green plaque - 5 Station Parade Uxbridge Road Ealing W5 3LD.jpg|thumb|right|Green plaque in Ealing]]
[[File:Ada_Lovelace_blue_plaque,_Mallory_Park_01.jpg|thumb|right|Blue plaque at Mallory Park]]
[[File:Closeup_of_the_Ada_Lovelace_memorial_-_geograph.org.uk_-_6290702.jpg|thumb|right|Ada Lovelace Memorial]]
* A green plaque is to be found on Fordhook Avenue on the corner of 5 Station Parade, [[Uxbridge Road]], Ealing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-03-06 |title=Ealing Civic Society - A Plaque for Ada Lovelace - Do Something Good |url=https://dosomethinggood.ealing.gov.uk/project/ealing-civic-society-plaque-ada-lovelace/ |access-date=2025-07-16 |website=dosomethinggood.ealing.gov.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref>
* [[Blue plaque]]s are at [[Mallory Park]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Blue Plaques |url=https://www.magnificentwomen.co.uk/blue-plaques.html |access-date=2025-07-16 |website=Magnificent Women |language=en}}</ref> and [[St James's Square]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ada Byron {{!}} Pioneer of Computing {{!}} Blue Plaques |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/ada-byron/ |access-date=2025-07-16 |website=English Heritage}}</ref>
* Ada Lovelace C of E High School in [[Greenford]], specialising in music, digital technologies and languages.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Curriculum {{!}} Ada Lovelace C of E High School |url=https://adalovelace.org.uk/attending-our-school/curriculum |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=adalovelace.org.uk}}</ref>
* Ada Lovelace House, council offices in [[Nottinghamshire]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://her.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/Monument/MNT27280/|title=MNT27280 - Ada Lovelace House - Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record|website=her.nottinghamshire.gov.uk}}</ref> later proposed to be let to small business.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chad.co.uk/news/new-office-plan-for-ada-house-1164801|title=New office plan for Ada house|date=9 January 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://d2n2lep.org/280000-ada-lovelace-house-renovation-completed/|title=£280,000 Ada Lovelace House renovation completed|date=11 May 2017}}</ref>
* Ada Byron King Building at [[Nottingham Trent University]]
* Ada Lovelace Suite at [[Seaham Hall]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://seaham-hall.co.uk/accommodation/ada-lovelace-suite/|title=Ada Lovelace Suite | Seaham Hall Coastal Spa Resort, Durham|date=23 June 2022|website=seaham-hall.co.uk}}</ref>
* The Lovelace Memorial is a Grade II Listed monument in [[Kirkby Mallory]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1187993|title=LOVELACE MEMORIAL APPROXIMATELY 30 METRES SOUTH OF CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS, Kirkby Mallory, Peckleton & Stapleton - 1187993 | Historic England|website=historicengland.org.uk}}</ref>
* A clone of Ada Lovelace appears in the 2023 video game ''[[Starfield (video game)|Starfield]]'' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/starfield-recruit-historical-companion-history-amelia-earhart-clone/|title=You Won't Believe Starfield Includes This Historical Figure As A Companion|website=screenrant.com|date=14 September 2023 |access-date=15 March 2025}}</ref>
* Ada Lovelace is a playable leader in ''[[Sid Meier's Civilization VII]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://civilization.2k.com/en-GB/civ-vii/game-guide/leaders/ada-lovelace/|title=Ada Lovelace leader, Sid Meier's Civilization VII|website=civilization.2k.com|access-date=5 March 2025}}</ref>
==Publications==
* Lovelace, Ada King. ''Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: A Selection from the Letters of Lord Byron's Daughter and her Description of the First Computer''. Mill Valley, CA: Strawberry Press, 1992. {{ISBN|978-0-912647-09-8}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Menabrea |first1=Luigi Federico |last2=Lovelace |first2=Ada |editor=Richard Taylor |title=Scientific Memoirs |date=1843 |volume=3 |pages=666–731 |chapter=Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage... with notes by the translator. Translated by Ada Lovelace |chapter-url=http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529203029/https://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html |archive-date=29 May 2023 |___location=London |publisher=Richard and John E. Taylor}}
** Also available on Wikisource: [[wikisource:Scientific Memoirs/3/Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq.|The Menebrea article]], [[wikisource:Scientific Memoirs/3/Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq./Notes by the Translator|The notes by Ada Lovelace.]]
===Publication history===
Six copies of the 1843 first edition of ''Sketch of the Analytical Engine'' with Ada Lovelace's "Notes"<ref name="fourmilab.ch" /> have been located. Three are held at Harvard University, one at the University of Oklahoma, and one at the United States Air Force Academy.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990030757610203941/catalog |title=Sketch of the analytical engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq. |website=Harvard University Library |access-date=9 April 2019}}</ref> On 20 July 2018, the sixth copy was sold at auction to an anonymous buyer for £95,000.<ref>{{Cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010011141/https://www.mooreallen.co.uk/group/news-events/rare-book-by-worlds-first-computer-programmer-sells-for-95000 |archive-date=10 October 2018 |url=https://www.mooreallen.co.uk/group/news-events/rare-book-by-worlds-first-computer-programmer-sells-for-95000 |title=Rare book by world's first computer programmer sells for £95,000 |date=23 July 2018 |website=mooreallen.co.uk |access-date=9 April 2019}}</ref> A digital facsimile of one of the copies in the Harvard University Library is available online.{{sfn|Menabrea|1843}}
In December 2016, a letter written by Ada Lovelace was forfeited by [[Martin Shkreli]] to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for unpaid taxes owed by Shkreli.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mangan |first=Dan |date=23 April 2018 |title=Fight brews over Shkreli's Wu-Tang album as 'pharma bro' gets banned by securities industry |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/23/fight-brews-over-shkrelis-wu-tang-album-as-he-gets-banned-by-securities-industry.html |access-date=23 June 2020 |website=CNBC}}</ref>
==See also==
{{cols}}
* [[Ai-Da]] – humanoid robot, completed in 2019
* ''[[Code: Debugging the Gender Gap]]''
* [[List of pioneers in computer science]]
* [[Timeline of women in science]]
* [[Women in computing]]
* [[Women in STEM fields]]
{{colend}}
==Explanatory
{{
==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}
===General and cited sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{
* {{Citation | last1=Elwin | first1=Malcolm | title=Lord Byron's Family | publisher=John Murray | year=1975}}.
* {{Citation | last=Essinger | first=James | title=Ada's algorithm: How Lord Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace launched the digital age | publisher=Melville House Publishing | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-61219-408-0}}.
* {{Citation | last1=Fuegi | first1=J | last2=Francis | first2=J | title=Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes' | journal=Annals of the History of Computing | volume=25 | pages=16–26 | number=4 |date=October–December 2003 | doi=10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887| bibcode=2003IAHC...25d..16F | s2cid=40077111 | url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/81bb/f32d2642a7a8c6b0a867379a4e9e99d872bc.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215003909/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/81bb/f32d2642a7a8c6b0a867379a4e9e99d872bc.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=2020-02-15 }}.
* {{Citation | last1=Hammerman | first1=Robin | last2=Russell | first2=Andrew L. | editor-first1=Robin | editor-first2=Andrew L. | editor-last1=Hammerman | editor-last2=Russell | title=Ada's Legacy: Cultures of Computing from the Victorian to the Digital Age | publisher=Association for Computing Machinery and Morgan & Claypool |year=2015 | doi=10.1145/2809523| isbn=978-1-970001-51-8 | s2cid=62018931 }}.
* {{
* {{Cite journal | last1=Kim | first1=Eugene | last2=Toole | first2=Betty Alexandra | title=Ada and the First Computer | journal=Scientific American | volume=280 | issue=5 | pages=66–71 |year=1999 | bibcode=1999SciAm.280e..76E | doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0599-76 }}
* {{Cite journal | last=Lewis | first=Judith S. | title=Princess of Parallelograms and her daughter: Math and gender in the nineteenth century English aristocracy | journal=[[Women's Studies International Forum]] | volume=18 | issue=4 | pages=387–394 | doi=10.1016/0277-5395(95)80030-S | date=July–August 1995 }}
* {{Citation | last1=Marchand | first1=Leslie | title=Byron A Portrait | publisher=John Murray | year=1971}}.
* {{Citation |last=Menabrea |first= Luigi Federico |author-link= Luigi Federico Menabrea |year= 1843 | title=Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage | journal= [[Scientific Memoirs]] | volume=3 | url=http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html | access-date=29 August 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915134651/http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html | archive-date=15 September 2008 | url-status=live}} With notes upon the memoir by the translator.
* Miller, Clair Cain. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-ada-lovelace.html "Ada Lovelace, 1815–1852,"] ''New York Times,'' 8 March 2018.
* {{Citation | last1=Moore | first1=Doris Langley | title=Ada, Countess of Lovelace | publisher=John Murray | year=1977|isbn=0-7195-3384-8}}.
* {{Citation |last=Moore |first=Doris Langley |title=The Late Lord Byron |year= 1961 |publisher=Lippincott | ___location =Philadelphia |oclc=358063 }}.1977 edition {{isbn|978-0-06-013013-8}}
* {{Citation |last=Stein |first=Dorothy |title=Ada: A Life and a Legacy |year=1985 |publisher=The MIT Press |___location=Cambridge, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |series=MIT Press Series in the History of Computing |isbn=978-0-262-19242-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/adalifeandlegacy00stei }}.
* {{Citation | first=Betty Alexandra | last=Toole | title=Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: A Selection from the Letters of Ada Lovelace, and her Description of the First Computer | year=1992 | publisher=Strawberry Press | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wlZQAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-0-912647-09-8}}.
* {{Citation | first=Betty Alexandra | last=Toole | title=Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: Prophet of the Computer Age | year=1998 | publisher=Strawberry Press | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gnvZAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-0-912647-18-0}}.
* {{Citation | first=Catherine | last=Turney | title=Byron's Daughter: A Biography of Elizabeth Medora Leigh | year=1972 | publisher=Scribner | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eE1aAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-0-684-12753-8}}
* {{Citation | last=Woolley | first=Benjamin |date=February 1999 | title= The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter | publisher=Pan Macmillan | place=AU | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=K8-sQgAACAAJ | access-date= 7 April 2013 | isbn=978-0-333-72436-1}}.
* {{Citation | last=Woolley | first=Benjamin |date=February 2002 | orig-year=1999 | title= The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter | publisher=McGraw-Hill Ryerson | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VGMFAAAACAAJ | access-date= 7 April 2013 | isbn=978-0-07-138860-3}}.
{{Refend}}
==Further reading==
* [[Jennifer Chiaverini]], 2017, '' Enchantress of Numbers'', [[E. P. Dutton|Dutton]], 426 pp.
* Christopher Hollings, [[Ursula Martin]], and Adrian Rice, 2018, ''Ada Lovelace: The Making of a Computer Scientist'', [[Bodleian Library]], 114 pp.
* [[Miranda Seymour]], 2018, ''In Byron's Wake: The Turbulent Lives of Byron's Wife and Daughter: Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace'', Pegasus, 547 pp.
* [[Jenny Uglow]] (22 November 2018), "Stepping Out of Byron's Shadow", ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXV, no. 18, pp. 30–32.
==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource|Author:Augusta Ada Byron}}
{{Commons category}}
* [https://www.siliconrepublic.com/video/adas-army-zoe-philpott "Ada's Army gets set to rewrite history at Inspirefest 2018"] by Luke Maxwell, 4 August 2018
* {{OL author|776398A}}
* "[http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/ Untangling the Tale of Ada Lovelace]" by [[Stephen Wolfram]], December 2015
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html | title=Ada Lovelace: Founder of Scientific Computing | work=Women in Science | publisher=SDSC | access-date=17 August 2001 | archive-date=25 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225024327/https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html%20 | url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/love.htm | title=Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace | work=Biographies of Women Mathematicians | publisher=[[Agnes Scott College]]}}
* {{Cite web | url=http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb161dep.lovelacebyron1-460 | archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20120424131314/http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb161dep.lovelacebyron1-460 | url-status=dead | archive-date=2012-04-24 | title=Papers of the Noel, Byron and Lovelace families | publisher=Archives hub | place=UK |format=archive }}
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/adalovelace/ | work=Babbage | title=Ada Lovelace & The Analytical Engine | publisher=Computer History}}
* {{Cite web | url=http://net.educause.edu/apps/er/review/reviewArticles/31240.html | title=Ada & the Analytical Engine | publisher=Educause | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810090713/http://net.educause.edu/apps/er/review/reviewArticles/31240.html | archive-date=10 August 2009 |format=archive}}
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.g4tv.com/techtvvault/features/27659/Ada_Lovelace_Countess_of_Controversy.html | work=Tech TV vault | title=Ada Lovelace, Countess of Controversy | publisher=G4 TV | access-date=25 February 2007 | archive-date=25 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225024305/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/games | url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20080306.shtml | work=In Our Time | publisher=[[BBC Radio 4]] | title=Ada Lovelace | format=streaming | type=audio | place=UK | date=6 March 2008}}
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/ada-lovelace-notes.html | title=Ada Lovelace's Notes and The Ladies Diary | publisher=Yale}}
* {{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRmEYMiphoU | title=The fascinating story Ada Lovelace | date=13 September 2015 | publisher=Sabine Allaeys |via=[[YouTube]]}}
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/12/10/ada-lovelace-science-religion-letter/ | title=Ada Lovelace, the World's First Computer Programmer, on Science and Religion | date=10 December 2013 | publisher=Maria Popova (Brain) }}
* {{Cite web | url=http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/10/ada-lovelace-walter-isaacson-innovators/ | title=How Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's Daughter, Became the World's First Computer Programmer | date=10 December 2014 | publisher=Maria Popova (Brain) }}
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Lovelace}}
{{Lord Byron}}
{{Timelines of computing}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|United Kingdom|Computer programming|Mathematics|History of science|Literature}}
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