
She coded before computers: meet Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace sketched what we’d now call “software” long before electronic computers existed.
Augusta Ada King (Countess of Lovelace) translated a paper about Babbage’s Analytical Engine and added long notes that include a step-by-step recipe for computing Bernoulli numbers — often called the first program. She also argued that machines could manipulate symbols and follow general rules, not just crank numbers. Decades later a programming language was named Ada in her honor — so her name still shows up in code today.

Ada Lovelace, English mathematician, an associate of Charles Babbage, for whose digital computer prototype, the Analytical Engine, she created a program in 1843. She has been called the first computer programmer. Ada Lovelace Day, the second Tuesday in October, honors women’s contributions to science and technology.
