Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852)

Did you know that the first computer programmer was a woman?

Born Augusta Ada Byron , Ada was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron. Ada's parents separated when she was just two months old and she never knew her famous father. Ada was a self-educated and talented mathematician, but she later studied with a professor at the University of London. At a dinner party in 1834, she was introduced to Charles Babbage and his proposed Analytical Engine (a mechanical computer-like device which would run on steam), she grasped the capabilities and possibilities of the proto-computer like no one else. Ada wrote seven short technical essays, which she called "Notes", about Babbage's Analytical Engine. Within these "Notes," were the concepts behind what would eventually become known as computer programming. However, Babbage's Analytical Engine was never built, and thus Ada's concepts never implemented. In the mid 1950s her notes were rediscovered and she was heralded as having remarkable prophetic foresight about the possibility of computers. Today she is considered to be the Mother of Computer Programming.

Other notable women in computing.