Ada Lovelace (1815-52)
The daughter of poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a gifted mathematician and scientist who worked with Charles Babbage, the computer scientist who had the idea of a programmable computer.
In 1842-43, Lovelace translated Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea's memoir on Babbage's newest proposed machine, the Analytical Engine. She appended a set of notes which specified in detail a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the engine, recognised by historians as the world's first computer program.
Babbage later wrote that “we discussed together the various illustrations that might be introduced: I suggested several but the selection was entirely her own. So also was the algebraic working out of the different problems, except, indeed, that relating to the numbers of Bernoulli, which I had offered to do to save Lady Lovelace the trouble. This she sent back to me for an amendment, having detected a grave mistake which I had made in the process.”
On 10 December 1980 (Ada's birthday), the US Defense Department approved the reference manual for its new computer programming language, called Ada. Her image can be seen on the Microsoft product authenticity hologram stickers.
Grace Murray Hopper (1906-92)
Rear Admiral Dr Grace Murray Hopper was a leader in the field of software development concepts. She contributed to the transition from primitive programming techniques to the use of sophisticated compilers.
A true visionary, Admiral Hopper conceptualised how a much wider audience could use the computer if there were tools that were both programmer-friendly and application-friendly. In pursuit of her vision she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1949. There she began yet the pioneering effort of UNIVAC I, the first large-scale electronic digital computer.
She worked on the Mark I Calculator, and was instrumental in the development of the Mark II and the Mark III calculators (early computers). In 1949, Hopper became an employee of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and joined the team developing the UNIVAC I.
She later returned to the Navy where she worked on validation software for the programming language COBOL and its compiler. It was her idea that programs could be written in a language that was close to English rather than in machine code or languages close to machine code (such as assembly language), which is how it was normally done at that time.
Anita Borg (1943-2003)
After getting her doctorate in computer science from New York University in 1981, Anita Borg worked for several computer companies and then spent 12 years in Digital Equipment's Western Research Laboratory and as consultant engineer in the Network Systems Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. Her primary responsibility was for the MECCA Communications and Information Systems project. She developed and patented a method for generating complete address traces used for analysing and designing high-speed memory systems.
The founding director of the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT), Borg was appointed to the Presidential Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology in 1999. She was charged with recommending strategies to the American government for increasing the breadth of participation fields for women.
Borg is quoted as saying that she always loved math and science, an interest she attributed to her mother. "My mother taught me that math was fun, so I thought it could be," she said.