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| Painting of Lovelace seated at a piano, by Henry Phillips (1852). Although in great pain at the time, she agreed to sit for the painting as her father, Lord Byron, had been painted by Phillips' father, Thomas Phillips. Photo: Public Domain |
She is known for writing the first algorithm for a machine, inventing the subroutine and recognizing the importance of looping. Countess Lovelace lived from 1815 to 1852.
Ada, whose given name was Augusta Ada Byron, was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke Byron, an accomplished mathematician. Ada was educated in music and mathematics by a succession of tutors, including Mary Somerville, a noted mathematician and scientist during the Victorian era. In addition to publishing her own papers, Somerville was known for translating Mécanique Céleste by Pierre-Simon Laplace and adding her own notes to explain the mathematics used by the author.
In 1833, Somerville introduced Ada Byron to Charles Babbage, who demonstrated a working model of a steam-powered calculating machine he called a Difference Engine...
Ada, the programming language created by the United States Department of Defense, is named in honor of the Countess of Lovelace. Since 2009, her contributions to science and engineering have been recognized each year on the middle Tuesday of October.
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Source: WhatIs.com
