Women in Technology

Ada Lovelace 1815-1852

Her mathematical talent shone through in her early life, and her skills and interest in machines lead to a working relationship with Charles Babbage who was the inventor of the “Analytical Engine”, a complicated device that was never actually created, but resembled the elements of a modern computer.

As a result of her work on the project, Ada is often referred to as the “world’s first computer programmer”. It was Lovelace's notes on the Analytical Engine that Alan Turing used as a form of inspiration for his work on the first modern computer in the 1940s.

Grace Hopper 1906 - 1992

Undeniably famous in the tech world, Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper was an esteemed computer scientist and one of the first computer programmers to work on the Harvard Mark I.

Her work led to the development of COBOL, an early programming language we is still used to this day. In 1947, she recorded the worlds first ever real computer bug.

 Hedy Lamarr 1914- 2000

Hedy was a self-taught inventor and film actress, who was awarded a patent in 1942 for her "secret communication system", designed with the help of the composer George Antheil.

This frequency hopping system was intended as a way to set radio-guided torpedos off course during the war, but the idea eventually inspired Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth technology commonly used today.