Ada Lovelace Day 2009 (AKA, Leading Ada)
Today is Ada Lovelace Day. The purpose of this day is to fill the blogosphere with information about women in technology. When I first signed up, I gave thought about the perfect subject. Who is the woman who has performed as my technological role model? I thought about it. And then some more. And then a little more. I tried hard to come up with someone. Finally, I gave up once I realized that I don’t have one. Sure, I have read about women in science, but I have never considered any of them to be a role model. Because of that, I almost let this day slip by without mention.
Now that the deadline approaches, I’m feeling regrets about not fulfilling my pledge. Why can I not write about Ada? I should write about Ada.
Ada Lovelace
Ada–born December 10, 1815–is known for working with Charles Babbage on his difference and analytical engine. She was raised studying mathematics and science–guided by her mother who was also educated and gifted in science and math. Her work with Babbage earned her the nickname “Enchantress of Numbers” and later the title as the first female computer scientist due to her writing a program that used his analytical engine to compute Bernoulli numbers. With that came her title, a namesake programming language, and even Microsoft product authenticity hologram stickers. This is short and lacking my inspiration because this isn’t the Ada about which I intend to write.
Ada Kelley Wisler
Ada–born May 4, 2005–is not known to very many people for much at all. She is named after the celebrant for today as well as carrying on my name with the added bonus of her monogram being AWK–also a programming language. During her first year, whenever I played with her or changed her diaper, I counted to her. My efforts paid off with her first big mathematical achievement: her very first words were counting to six. She has expanded her range of counting numbers a great deal since then, as well as formed a good grasp on ordinals and inequalities. Just recently I gifted her with her very first unix machine. She has mastered starting programs, but does not fully understand shutting them down. When I’m programming, she crawls up beside me with her laptop, opens up the word processor, starts typing and then pauses and says to me, “Mommy, you typing your letters? I type my letters, too.”
Someone said to me in regards to my love of technology, “You’re like a dude.” No. No, I’m not. I’m female. I’m a programmer. I’m a math major. Most importantly, I’m Ada’s mother.
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Hi, I found your blog through the Ada Lovelace Day post collection. I was surprised as I found out who the Ada you wrote about is and I wish her to be as good as or even better than her namesake.
Well said. I can’t remember how many times people asked me why I would go into chemical engineering. My answer, “Because I like math and science.”
You’re definitely not like The Dude. You smell much better.