The Ada Project (TAP) is an initiative that began in 1994 as a way to encourage more women into the field of computing. TAP was named after Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, who was the first woman computer programmer.
Ada Byron was born on December 10, 1815 as the daughter of the famed poet, Lord Byron. However, when Ada was quite young, her parents separated, and her mother rebelled against Ada following in her father’s footsteps, into the world of poetry. Instead, she gave Ada the love of mathematics and science, and guided her down that path. In 1834, Ada Byron met Charles Babbage and first heard about his plans for a calculating engine and was intrigued by his ideas.
Over the course of the next several years, Babbage began work on his calculating engine, and correspondence between Ada and Babbage occurred on a regular basis. In 1843, Ada, now married to the Earl of Lovelace, and the mother of three children, published an article based on Babbage’s idea. This article expanded on Babbage’s original concept and included predictions on how this engine could be used to compose music and produce graphics, as well as be used for scientific purposes.
With the vision that Ada had for the analytic engine, Babbage wrote plans for how this engine could be used to calculate numbers. This writing is considered by many to be the very first computer program, and Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace had a large hand in writing the program, which laid the foundation for the development of modern day computer programming.
Ada Byron was a visionary who believed that machines could be used to think and to accomplish many tasks for us. Her vision was about a century too early, and her dreams of an analytic machine were realized in the 20th century and continue to this day.
Unfortunately, Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace passed away in 1852, at the age of 36. During the later stages of her life, she began having a string of severe medical problems that she was unable to fight off, and she died of uterine cancer.
To recognize her many accomplishments, in May 1979 the U.S. Department of Defense named a software language after her (Ada programming language).
Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace was an intelligent woman with a love for science and mathematics, and is a great role model for women today. In 1994, in an effort to continue to keep Ada’s spirit alive, TAP was established to help encourage more women in the field of computing. TAP provides young women with information and resources so that they can explore the world of computer science.
The number of women in the computer science profession has fallen from 35% of the workforce in 1990 to 28% of the workforce in 2000. One of the goals of TAP is to provide information for women to become professionals in computing and to help turn these statistics around.
In addition to the initiatives of TAP, several individual colleges and universities are attempting to change their curriculum to make it more attractive to women, and to increase the number of women in the computer science programs. With the efforts of TAP and the partner associations, it is expected that the number of women in the computer profession will continue to rise.
