Asteroid Number 232923
Discovered January 15, 2005 by KLENOT at Klet
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of George Gordon Byron, was an English mathematician and writer known mainly for her work on Babbage's analytical engine. Her notes are important in the early history of computers, so she is considered the world's first computer programmer.
last updated 1-24-2026.
Ada Lovelace was the first woman to serve as a computer programmer. She was an English woman who served in World War II.
There was some controversy within her family.
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) is widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer, long before modern computers even existed. Born Augusta Ada Byron, she was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, but her mother deliberately steered her toward mathematics and science, believing logic would balance what she saw as her father’s volatile imagination.
Ada’s most famous work came through her collaboration with the mathematician Charles Babbage, who designed the Analytical Engine, a mechanical machine intended to perform complex calculations. While the machine was never built in her lifetime, Lovelace recognized something revolutionary about it: she understood that it could do far more than calculate numbers. In her notes on the engine, she described how it could be programmed to follow sequences of instructions—what we now call an algorithm. One of these notes is considered the first computer program in history.
Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer program in 1843 in her notes on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Her program described step-by-step instructions for a machine to calculate Bernoulli numbers, including how to store values, repeat operations, and control the order of steps. This was the first time anyone explained how a general-purpose machine could be programmed to perform complex tasks automatically. Beyond this, Lovelace envisioned that such machines could work with symbols, music, and art—not just numbers—anticipating modern computing long before computers existed.
What truly sets Ada Lovelace apart was her vision. She foresaw that machines could one day create music, art, and complex patterns, anticipating the modern idea of computers as creative tools. Her blend of mathematical rigor and imaginative insight makes her a powerful symbol of innovation at the intersection of science and creativity.
Today, Ada Lovelace is celebrated not only for her groundbreaking ideas but also as a pioneer for women in science and technology—someone who imagined the future before the tools to build it even existed.
I drew the sigil for Ada Lovelace.