Happy birthday, Ada Lovelace: the first Computer Programmer

On Tuesday 13 October, Mrs Karen Marinho, our Head of Computer Science, took eight students from Year 10 to Lower Sixth to the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day.

Ada Lovelace Day was created as an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). To mark the day this year and to highlight computing as a career choice for both genders, the Centre for Computing History organised the mini-festival. The girls were able to browse through the museum which is full of hands-on displays of computers, games consoles and mobile phones dating back over the last 50 years. The computers and games consoles have classic games like Pong, Pacman and Mario on a 1977 Atari 2600 to Lego Star Wars on a Play Station 2, all of which can be played! The girls were particularly enthralled by the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset, which was released in 2014.

The students heard a keynote presentation delivered by interactive story-teller, Zoe Philpott, who brought along an amazing LED dress, the prototype of the one that will be featured in her forthcoming tour Ada, Ada, Ada. The dress will be used to tell Ada’s story, describing her ideas about flying machines and computer programming with punch cards. The audience will take part using strings to operate the LEDs on the dress. Zoe discussed the creative technology production of the LED dress, and why they chose to tell Ada's story using wearable technology.

The presentation was followed by a talk by Professor Carron Shankland, a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Stirling. She is Chair of BCS Women in Computing Research Group and a member of the University of Stirling Centre for Gender and Feminist Studies. She delivered a gripping presentation on the life of Ada Lovelace, the impact of her work and the inspiration she provides to women today. Professor Shankland talked about studying Computing, careers in Computing and the need for more women role models in Computing.

The girls took full advantage of all that the mini-festival offered, whether it was playing against one another on an 'ancient' games console, hearing about interactive story-telling or asking Professor Shankland how to apply to study Computer Science at university.