Oct 16th – Happy Ada Lovelace Day!
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. A day to highlight that women all over the world achieve greatness in technology.
“Outstanding women can function as inspirational examples of success, illustrating the kinds of achievements that are possible for women around them. They demonstrate that it is possible to overcome traditional gender barriers, indicating to other women that high levels of success are indeed attainable.” – FindingAda.com the official Ada Lovelace Day website.
So many women have achieved success in all of these fields, and yet not much is heard about them. Its wonderful to have at least one day a year that is devoted to lauding their accomplishments. This is especially important for young girls out there who might be interested in these fields. They need to see that other women have succeeded, they need to see that being smart and interested in the sciences can be an option.
Lady Ada King, Countess of Lovelace is a wonderful choice, as she is often thought of as the first computer programmer. Sadly she lived in a time where she was not allowed to reach her full potential.
While Ada was the first recorded woman to be involved in the field, there were many others that followed. This article covers quite an interesting selection of notable women in the computer science field.
Happy Ada Lovelace Day everyone.
October 16th, 2012 at 11:13 am
We learned Ada (the language named after her) at Poly. Odd language, great pioneer.
October 16th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Hehe, I learned Ada as well, though I doubt most current CS students learn it anymore.
October 16th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Woot!
Do people even learn LiSP anymore?
October 16th, 2012 at 6:47 pm
I dont think people even learn C anymore. Its all object oriented programming, which seems a little short sighted to me, but then education often is. =P
October 19th, 2012 at 11:48 am
There was a big push towards Java (lol) but I have no idea what they teach at Poly now.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Why java? I never understood that. Its not terribly useful in video games. =/
October 23rd, 2012 at 10:27 am
Because that’s what the Computer Science department at Cal Poly is focused on, making video games. :D
October 23rd, 2012 at 10:45 am
LOL! They all should be.=P