As many of you know, today is Ada Lovelace Day where science bloggers are encouraged to "write a blog post about your STEM heroine". I had a lot of thoughts about who to write about, but then I read an NPR story, The Forgotten Female Programmers Who Created Modern Tech and realized that there are many people who don't know who Ada Lovelace is. So I'm writing about her. Ada Lovelace well actually her full name is Ada Bryan King, Countess of Lovelace, was an Analyst, Metaphysician, and Founder of Scientific Computing and is credited as being the world's first computer programmer. .

As wikipedia says, "As a young adult, her mathematical talents led her to an ongoing working relationship and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage, and in particular Babbage's work on the Analytical Engine. Between 1842 and 1843, she translated an article by Italian military engineer Luigi Menabrea on the engine, which she supplemented with an elaborate set of notes of her own, simply called Notes. These notes contain what many consider to be the first computer program—that is, an algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine. Lovelace's notes are important in the early history of computers. She also developed a vision on the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on those capabilities.[8] Her mind-set of "poetical science" led her to ask basic questions about the Analytical Engine (as shown in her notes) examining how individuals and society relate to technology as a collaborative tool."

So as you work on your computer today, give a shout out to Ada