Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

Famous For: Writing code for Analytical Engine

She is the first computer programmer of the world. She had collaborated with British mathematician, inventor, and engineer Charles Babbage at an early age of 17 years old. Babbage had drawn up plans for an elaborate machine he called the Difference Engine, whose incomplete prototype he had shown to Lovelace. After she became fascinated with his work, they began working on Analytical Engine.

In 1843 she translated an article written by the Italian mathematician and engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea, “Notions sur la machine analytique de Charles Babbage” in nearly twenty thousand words. The Notes included the first published description of a stepwise sequence of operations for solving certain mathematical problems. Note G set out a detailed plan for the punched cards to weave a long sequence of Bernoulli numbers, and which is now considered to be the first computer program.