{"id":4660,"date":"2018-11-21T18:37:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T17:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogit.itu.dk\/ethos\/?p=4660"},"modified":"2019-01-07T15:23:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T14:23:27","slug":"ada-lovelace-day-in-ethos-lab-a-blogpost-by-sophia-knopf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.itu.dk\/ethoslab\/2018\/11\/21\/ada-lovelace-day-in-ethos-lab-a-blogpost-by-sophia-knopf\/","title":{"rendered":"Ada Lovelace Day in ETHOS Lab, a blogpost by Sophia Knopf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comics & Cake – Ada Lovelace Day 2018 in ETHOS Lab<\/b><\/h1>\n

\u201cWho is Ada Lovelace?\u201d might be a legitimate question in light of several Ada Lovelace related events that recently happened – initiatives all over the world accompanying the official Ada Lovelace Day on the 9th of October 2018. Despite these initiatives, the name Ada Lovelace still is a fairly unfamiliar one to many people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ada who?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Quoting from Sydney Padua\u2019s biographic comic book about the life of Ada Lovelace, she was born in 1815 as the \u201cone and only legitimate child of \u2018mad, bad, and dangerous to know\u2019 Lord Byron\u201d (1). But <\/span>beyond<\/span><\/i> being the daughter of a famous poet – and this is what she gets all the credit for on Ada Lovelace Day – she was a mathematician and the first programmer.<\/span> You can find an interesting overview of the life of Ada Lovelace here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

It was Ada\u2019s mother who introduced her child to science, and who facilitated and valued a mathematic education. Later, when Ada was 17 years old, the mathematician Charles Babbage became her friend, and Ada became fascinated by his idea of the <\/span>Analytical Engine<\/span><\/i>, a machine that had all the elements of a modern computer.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1842\/43, Lovelace translated an article about the <\/span>Analytical Engine<\/span><\/i>, written in French by Luigi Menabrea after he attended a lecture by Babbage, into English. The result was an article of three times length due to elaborations and footnotes she added and with which Babbage was impressed. Ada Lovelace was the first person \u201cto write and publish a full set of instructions that a computing device could use to reach an end result that had not been calculated in advance\u201d (2), which makes her the first computer programmer, a software pioneer so to speak.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Ada Lovelace is far more than that: She is a symbol for women and their role in STEM related fields and careers, and a motivation to discuss these topics more openly and ambitiously. To encourage such dialogue is also what we had in mind when creating our own ETHOSLab event in celebration of Ada Lovelace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Comics & Cake for Lunch<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Following the motto <\/span>Comics & Cake<\/span><\/i>, the ETHOSLab hosted an Ada Lovelace inspired lunch break event on this year\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day, the 9th of October 2018. We printed and exhibited an extract from Sydney Padua\u2019s aforementioned comic book <\/span>The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of The First Computer (2015)<\/span><\/i>, and ordered a huge dark chocolate raspberry cake with a sugarcoaty Ada Lovelace picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With the doors widely opened, our lab and the space outside quickly filled around lunch time, and in the end, about 30 students and staff from IT University gathered to have a piece of cake (after taking a picture, of course) and to celebrate the day and women in STEM.<\/span><\/p>\n

The importance of role models<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAda Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n