But first who is Ada Lovelace? Born Ada Gordon in 1815, she was the child of Lord and Lady Byron. According to nurtured by her mother, Ada was raised her under a strict regimen of science, logic, and mathematics. Ada herself from childhood had a fascination with machines, designing intricate boats and steam flying machines, and poring over the diagrams of the new inventions of the Industrial Revolution that filled the scientific magazines of the time.
In 1833, her then mentor, Mary Sommerville, introduced Ada to Charles Babbage, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. According to sources, she was so intellectual and had such high analytical skills that Babbage referred to her as The Enchantress of Number". Over the years Ada would work with Babbage on a device he called the Analytical Engine. In 1842, she translated a short article describing the Analytical Engine by the Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea, It is considered to be the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer, and for this reason Ada Lovelace has often been cited as the ‘first computer programmer’.
Her work on the never to be built Analytical Engine went on to inspire Alan Turing’s work on the first modern computers in the 1940s.
Since then, much work has been done to encourage more women into fields like science, tech, engineering and maths (STEM) and follow in Ada’s footsteps. There is even an organisation called the Finding Ada Network dedicated to ‘peer mentorship and exclusive career development and gender equality content for women in STEM and advocates who work towards gender equality’ in all the name of the lady herself.
For its part, Capacity continues to shine a light on some of the most prominent and influential women from the wider telecoms sector with our annual 20 Women to Watch powerlisting. This year’s list includes Sarah McComb (AWS), Clementine Fournier (BICS), Tania Pinosa (Brodynt Global), Lisa Miller (CenturyLink), Belle Lajoie (Cloudscene), Marisa Trisolino (CMC Networks), Louisa Gregory (Colt), Suzie Gleeson (Digital Realty), Cara Mascini (EdgeInfra), Woon Lee Chin (Epsilon), and Cristina Amor Soto (Eurona Telcom).
Other names include: Tansy McCluskie (Facebook), Chandy Gosh (Inteliquent), Caroline Puygrenier (Interxion), Funke Opeke (MainOne), Anne Morel (Orange International Carriers), Naaz Bax ( Seabron Networks), Mary Clark (Synchronoss), Gagun Gahir (Telstra), and Amy Marks (Xsite Modular).
Capacity has also been hard at work with the recently launched, Global Women in Telco & Tech initiative with the inaugural Summit and Awards that took place in September.
With over 140 men and women gathered into the same room in the name of diversity and inclusion, we were able to not only facilitate conversation but also initiate some change. Additionally, the Awards we also featured an evening dedicated to the celebration of the work by women in the field. See below for images from the event:
