IT pioneer Ada Lovelace

Almost 180 years ago, IT pioneer Lovelace wrote the first computer program
She is considered the world’s first programmer and the founder of computer science. That she created a new, pioneering profession is something Lovelace surely could not have imagined in 1842.

Ada Lovelace was born in London in December 1815 as the daughter of the British poet Lord Byron. Her parents’ marriage broke up when Ada was still a baby. To prevent Ada from pursuing a literary career, her mother had her educated almost exclusively in the natural sciences, especially mathematics.

Recognizing Potential

The plan worked. Ada grew up during the Industrial Revolution and witnessed how the working world changed as more and more factories were established. Perhaps that is why she began designing construction plans for various machines at an early age. At 17, she met Charles Babbage, also a mathematician and inventor. He showed her plans for a machine with which he wanted to perform complex mathematical calculations. While translating a book published in France about Babbage’s “Analytical Engine,” she added extensive calculations and her own ideas. She recognized the machine’s diverse applications, and her vision went far beyond Babbage’s. She contributed to computer architecture, laid the foundations of programming, and even developed early ideas in the direction of artificial intelligence. She realized that this machine would be capable of doing anything based on a logical algorithm, thereby recognizing the potential of the computer.

Digital Revolution

Lovelace was far ahead of her time, as the rights and privileges of women in the Victorian era were limited. They had no right to vote, could not own property, and the leisure activities of middle- and upper-class women were limited to reading, music, needlework, and horse riding. At the same time, women from the working class were important laborers in factories during the Industrial Revolution. It was therefore by no means a given that Lovelace was allowed to receive a scientific education. The fact that she was taken seriously by male scientists testifies to her extraordinary talent. With her deep technical understanding and visionary strength, she launched, from today’s perspective, the digital revolution during the Industrial Revolution—one that continues to this day.

In 1834, at the age of 19, Ada married William Lord King, who later became the Earl of Lovelace. Her role as an aristocratic wife and mother of three left her little time for mathematical studies. She escaped into horse betting, where she lost large sums of money. In the last five years of her life, she therefore worked on a mathematically sophisticated betting system.

In 1852, Ada Lovelace died of cancer at the age of 36.

123 years after her death, the Pentagon ordered the development of a universally applicable programming language. To honor the computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, it was named ADA.

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