Augusta Ada Byron (1815-1852) was a British mathematician, informatician and writer who is most famous for her work on the general-purpose computer. She was the first woman to write an algorithm for a computer machine. This is why she is considered to be the first female programmer.
She was educated differently from the other girls at that time, studying science and mathematics. When she was 17 years old, she met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor with whom she became very close. She learned a lot from him and was always very interested in his projects. She was even asked to translate some of Babbage’s works, in which she also gave her opinion on the matter. These added relevant information to the projects.
Even though her work in the field of computer science was revealing, it was not until the 1950s that it was really taken into account. Her discoveries were reintroduced to the world and republished by BV Bowden in 1953.
Interesting facts:
-She was the daughter of the great writer Lord Byron.
-She married a man called William King, who supported her academic endeavours. This is important because at that time, women did not usually work and even less in an academic field, and those who were, were not well received by men.
– She used to sign her papers only with her initials “AAL”, so nobody could know if she was a woman or a man.
Bibliography:
https://www.biography.com/scholar/ada-lovelace