Why Ada Lovelace?
The story of a pioneer who continues to inspire new generations of girls and adolescents to get closer to science and technology.
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) was a British mathematician recognized for having developed the first description of an algorithm intended to be executed by a machine. For this contribution, she is considered a pioneer of programming and a fundamental figure in the history of computing.
Ada Byron was born in London in 1815, daughter of the poet Lord Byron and Anne Milbanke, a woman passionate about mathematics. Her mother made sure that Ada received a rigorous education in science and mathematics, something very unusual for a girl of that time.
At the age of 17 she met Charles Babbage, inventor of the first mechanical calculating machine, the Analytical Engine. Ada was fascinated. She not only understood how it worked: she went further and grasped something that Babbage himself had not entirely imagined. That machine could not only calculate numbers, it could process any type of information, as long as it was given the correct instructions.
Ada wrote the first instructions for that machine. Today we call them algorithms. That is why she is considered the first programmer in history.
She died in 1852, at the age of 36, without having seen her work recognized in her lifetime. More than a century passed before the scientific world rediscovered her notes and understood their importance.
Much more than a historical figure
We chose her name because it represents curiosity, creativity and the ability to imagine new possibilities for science and technology.
At a time when women had scarce participation in scientific fields, Ada Lovelace developed innovative ideas that anticipated central concepts of modern computing. Her legacy continues to inspire new generations to explore, create and transform the world through knowledge.
The Ada Lovelace Event seeks to make visible the contribution of women to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), while promoting that more girls and adolescents can recognize themselves as protagonists of these fields.
Through playful, experimental and collaborative activities, we invite girls and adolescents to discover that science and technology are also spaces where they can learn, create, ask questions and develop their full potential.
The Event takes place within the framework of Ada Lovelace Day, an international initiative that celebrates the achievements and contributions of women in STEM.
Since 2022, this proposal has been carried out in different cities of Latin America thanks to the joint work of universities, educational institutions, organizations and teams committed to building a more diverse, inclusive and participatory science.
A network that grows every year.
Educational institutions from different countries join every year to bring science and technology closer to more girls throughout the region.