Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician and is known as one of the first computer programmers. Born in London in 1815 to poet Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke Byron, Ada was privately educated by tutors in maths and sciences, and continued her studies in mathematics by working with professors at the University of London. After marrying William King and becoming the Countess of Lovelace, Ada became interested in the Italian mathematician Charles Babbage’s proposed general-purpose computing machine, the Analytical Engine. While transcribing and annotating an article about the Analytical Engine, Ada described codes that could be created for the device to follow a series of instructions, a process called looping used by computer programmers today. Although Ada died young at age 36, her innovations and contributions to women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are still celebrated today.
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