Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day

As you scroll through your newsfeeds today, you may see the name Ada Lovelace a few times. If you take the time to look up her name, you’ll go down a beautiful rabbit hole and discover a world you never knew existed. This intelligent trailblazer of a woman was the first computer programmer, who contributed work so ahead of its time, it took another hundred years to be completely understood. With her contributions in computer programming, Ada Lovelace has become the face of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), which is why the second Tuesday of every October—today Oct. 9th—marks #AdaLovelaceDay.

Ada Lovelace Day is a fairly new celebration. Founded in 2009 by technologist Suw Charman-Anderson, it was launched to recognize the achievements of women in STEM. As an international celebration, it puts a spotlight on women in STEM, and in turn, creates new role models for all those young girls interested in the STEM fields.

In fields that are traditionally dominated by men, we can’t forget to recognize the brilliant contributions of women and encourage young girls to be interested and educated in these areas as well. So, maybe today, do a bit more digging into Ada Lovelace and her work. Then get motivated to find and support those organizations that are dedicated to supporting women in STEM. Here are a few to consider:

• Girls Who Code
• National Girls Collaborative Project
• Million Women Mentors
• The Scientista Foundation
• Vue Vixens - Founded by Progress’ own Jen Looper for all women identifying programmers interested in Vue.js.

Let’s raise a glass to Ada Lovelace, the woman so ahead of her time, and maybe even ours, who paved the way for women interested in all things STEM.