Ada Lovelace Symposium - Celebrating 200 Years of a Computer Visionary: Recent Episodes

Oxford University

10 December 2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ada Lovelace, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s unbuilt mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. The Symposium is aimed at a broad audience of those interested in the history and culture of mathematics and computer science, presenting new discoveries for the Oxford archives, and other current scholarship on Lovelace’s life and work, and linking her ideas to contemporary thinking about mathematics, computing and artificial intelligence. Thanks to the ACM Digital Library for sponsoring the symposium.

View Details

Panel discussion to conclude the symposium with Muffy Calder, Valerie Barr, Suw Charman-Anderson, Murray Pittock and Cheryl Praeger. Chair: Muffy Calder, University of Glasgow. Speakers: Valerie Barr, Union College and Chair ACM-W. Suw Charman-Anderson, Founder of Ada Lovelace Day. Murray Pittock, University of Glasgow. Cheryl Praeger, University of Western Australia Cheryl Praeger, University of Western Australia.

View Details

Moshe Vardi, Rice University explores the question "If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?".

View Details

Judith Grabiner, Pitzer College describes how the 19th century saw radical change, producing new ideas of space, destroying the unchallenging authority of mathematics, revolutionising art, making relativity possible and helping create modernism. Includes an introduction by Michael Wooldridge, Head of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford.

View Details

Judith Grabiner, Pitzer College describes how the 19th century saw radical change, producing new ideas of space, destroying the unchallenging authority of mathematics, revolutionising art, making relativity possible and helping create modernism. Includes an introduction by Michael Wooldridge, Head of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford.

View Details

In this talk graphic artist and animator Sydney Padua talks about her bestselling graphic novel "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage". She will also display her 3D animations of how the Analytical Engine would have looked and operated.

View Details

In this talk Imogen Forbes-Macphail, University of California, Berkeley, contextualises Lovelace's work on the engines against the backdrop of Romantic thought surrounding the power of poetry and the nature of original composition.

View Details

To mark the 200th anniversary of Lovelace's birth, Elizabeth Bruton, Museum of the History of Science, reviews and explores academic and popular representations of Ada Lovelace and engage with the controversy of her claim as the first computer programmer. Includes an introduction from Sally Shuttleworth, Professor at University of Oxford.

View Details

During the years 1840-1, Ada Lovelace corresponded with the mathematician Augustus De Morgan. In this talk Christopher Hollings, University of Oxford reports on recent new studies of the mathematics Ada was learning with De Morgan.

View Details

In this talk Julia Markus, Hofstra University shall dispel the myth that Lady Byron kept Ada from poetry, she will also show that the mother-daughter relationship was a psychological spur to Ada's early experiments.

View Details

In this talk June Barrow-Green from the Open University describes some mathematical archives and some of the issues associated with them. Includes an introduction from Vicki Hanson, Vice-President of the ACM.

View Details

Ada Lovelace had a broad interest in the science and technologies of the day and explored post-Romantic ideas which made a significant link between science and poetry. In this talk Richard Holmes looks at some of these surprising connections.

View Details

How Ada approached information is the key to understanding her contribution. In this talk Betty Toole, author of "ADA: The Enchantress of Numbers" focuses on Ada's four questions: What is the source? What does it mean? What if? and Why not?

View Details

John Barnes, Ada software consultant talks about Byron and his bear and the evolution of the computing language named after Ada Lovelace.

View Details

Composer Emily Howard talks to David De Roure about her musical composition 'Ada sketches'.

View Details

Ursula Martin, University of Oxford and Soren Riis, Queen Mary University of London give new focus to letters within the archive of Ada Lovelace's family documents. Includes an introduction by Nick Woodhouse, President of the Clay Mathematics Institute.

View Details

Adrian Johnstone, Royal Holloway, University of London reviews Babbage's remarkable 'Mechanical Notation'.

View Details

Bernard Sufrin, University of Oxford establishes a context of Ada's 'Translators Notes' using more recent descriptions of computing machinery and programming methods.

View Details

Bernard Sufrin, University of Oxford establishes a context of Ada's 'Translators Notes' using more recent descriptions of computing machinery and programming methods.

View Details

Doron Swade, Royal Holloway, University of London reviews the trajectory of Babbage's calculating Engines and examines Ada Lovelace's contribution to computing.

View Details

Alexander Wolf, President of the Association for Computing Machinery and Imperial College London, introduces the Ada Lovelace Symposium.