Ada Lovelace Day 2027 is on Tuesday

About Ada Lovelace Day

The day is named after Ada Lovelace (1815 to 1852), the English mathematician and daughter of the poet Lord Byron. In 1843 she published a translation of an article about Charles Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine and added her own extensive notes, which explored how the machine could be instructed to carry out calculations and might handle more than numbers. Those notes are why she is so often described as a pioneer of computer programming.

Ada Lovelace Day was started in 2009 by British writer and technologist Suw Charman-Anderson. It began as a pledge: she promised to blog about a woman in technology she admired on Tuesday, March 24, 2009, if 1,000 other people would do the same, and nearly 2,000 signed up. The first official event followed in 2010, and the first Ada Lovelace Day Live stage show in London was held in 2011. The organizers say the idea drew on research by psychologist Penelope Lockwood suggesting that women benefit more than men from seeing role models of their own gender.

The day later settled on the second Tuesday of October. Its organizers say the date is deliberately arbitrary, picked to avoid holidays and exam seasons; Lovelace's own birthday, December 10, falls in the busy run-up to Christmas. Over the years the day has spread to independent events in many countries, from school talks to Wikipedia edit-a-thons that add articles about women scientists. In 2022 the organizers warned that the flagship London event might end for lack of sponsorship, and in 2023 the Royal Institution hosted it. Grassroots events continue each October.

Sources: Finding Ada: Ada Lovelace Day (archived), Finding Ada: History of Ada Lovelace Day (archived), Finding Ada: When is ALD? (archived), Royal Institution: Royal Institution to host Ada Lovelace Day 2023, BBC News: Celebration of women in science and tech ending (2022), Computer History Museum: Ada Lovelace. How we check dates.

How to mark Ada Lovelace Day

• Write a post or give a short talk about a woman in science, technology, engineering or maths whose work you admire.
• Join or host a Wikipedia edit-a-thon to improve articles about women scientists and engineers.
• Read Ada Lovelace's 1843 notes on the Analytical Engine, or a good biography of her, and share what surprised you.
• Invite a woman working in a STEM field to speak to a class, club or youth group about her career.
• At work, nominate a female colleague for an award, a conference talk or a stretch project.

Ada Lovelace Day dates