The Mother of Computer Programming.

While many consider Alan Turing to be the father of “theoretical computer science,” there is another name that was overlooked for over two hundred years, and this name belongs to a woman who is very important in the formation of computer technology as we know it today. Her name, Ada Lovelace, “the mother of computer programming.”

Ms Lovelace was born in 1815 in London, England. She was a writer and one of the World’s smartest mathematicians. Her mother’s name was Anne Milbank and her father was the World famous poet, Lord Byron who passed away in Greece when Ada was only eight years old. Anne Milbank was a mathematician and insisted that Ada study it too which was almost unheard of for girls and young women back then.

Ada had a quiet childhood in her mother’s estate and suffered many illnesses including the measles. She was educated in music, maths, literary works, chemistry, geography, algebra and a lot more.

As she matured into a very intelligent young woman, Ada used what she believed was the poetical language of science or just poetical science. It is from this language that she discovered that numbers could be manipulated by the computer technology she was working with.

Later, Lovelace met the prominent Father of Computers, Charles Babbage who became her mentor. Baggage was an inventor and created what was known as an analytical computer which is what the computers we have today were developed from. Over time, Ada became a colleague of Babbage and together they discovered many things about technology.

It was in 1843 that Ms Lovelace read and translated an article from Italian into English. She didn’t just translate it, she added more of her own notes to her translation. Within these notes was the Bernoulli number calculating method which she decoded. It was at this point that she had an insight into algorithms using the mathematical training she had growing up. This, in and of itself, proved the fact, that her work of recognizing that computer technology could manipulate the Bernoulli number code. Which created the blueprint for the art and music we are seeing today with pro tools, Cubase and Artificial Intelligence like Suno Studio and artistic apps such as Canva.

Ada married a man named Edward King in 1835. King would later become the Earl of Lovelace which led Ada to attain the title Countess of Lovelace. They had three bright, intelligent children. These were her eldest son, Byron King-Noel who was born in 1836. Byron attained two titles, Viscount Ockham and 12th Baron of Wentworth. Their middle child was Anne Isabella King-Noel (1837–1917). Anne Isabella was a famous traveler and she bred Arabian horses. She was given the title Lady Anne Blunt. Lastly, was their youngest child, Ralph Gordon King-Milbanke who was born in 1839 who became the 2nd Earl of Lovelace.

Ada and her husband parted ways for reasons that are unkown publicly.

Ada passed away from uterine cancer when she was 36 years old on the 27th of November 1852.

Her contribution to society went unnoticed and almost completely undocumented for a very long time. It wasn’t until the 20th Century that Ada Lovelace and her contributions to society were re-discovered by Alan Turing. Today Ada is recognized and celebrated in STEM as a pioneer and has now got a day dedicated to her name in October.