Raising the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths
Tuesday 16th October is Ada Lovelace Day. Launched in 2009, the Day aims to raise the profile of women working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, by encouraging people to talk about the achievements of women they admire, highlighting them as role models.
Ada Lovelace is regarded by some as the first computer programmer. Charles Babbage asked her to translate a paper by the Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea on Babbage's Analytical Engine. She did so, but also added her own notes, including a program to calculate Bernoulli Numbers, tripling the length of the paper.
To find out more about Ada herself and the women being talked about today, please visit http://findingada.com/
This year, the Royal Society is celebrating the Day with a group 'edit-a-thon' to improve Wikipedia articles about women in science. For more details on this event, please visit the Royal Society website.
You may also be interested in this article from the BBC (including a video of 4 women working in science sharing their experiences) and this blog from Professor Athene Donald on the Guardian website.
Here at Imperial, the Academic Opportunities Committee works to create a level playing field for female academics. The College also holds a Bronze Athena SWAN award. 9 departments also hold Athena SWAN awards. For more information, please click here.
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Reporter
Rob Bell
Office of the Provost
