Ada Lovelace Day a huge success!

Ada Lovelace Day – which was 16 October this year – has been a huge success, with over 17,500 mentions of ‘Ada Lovelace’ on Twitter, and over 12,500 mentions of ‘Ada Lovelace Day’. We’ve had tweets from many diverse people, including CERN, the New Scientist, the US Air Force Academy, the Guardian and hundreds more.Our main event, Ada Lovelace Day Live! feat. the WES Karen Burt Memorial Award, can only be described as a triumphant success, and we’ll be writing more about that on the blog soon!Thank you all for your participation!Next year’s Ada Lovelace Day will be held on:

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Ada Lovelace Day in a nutshell

Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women in these male-dominated fields by raising the profile of other women in STEM.

Don’t forget to add your story!

There’s still time for you to write a blog post about your STEM heroine and add it to our collection: Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Write about a woman in science, technology, engineering or maths whose achievements you admire.
  2. Publish your story online.
  3. Visit our directory of stories and either join up or log in.
  4. Add your story to our collection.
  5. Tell your friends!

Yes, it really is that simple!

add a story

Anonymous Ada

Give your heroine the credit she deserves!

Who was Ada?

From Kiribati to Howland Island

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on Kiritimati Island, Ada Lovelace Day begins. Also known as Christmas Island, the coral atoll is situated in the Line Islands and is a part of the Republic of Kiribati. It lies 14 hours ahead of GMT/UTC, and 13 hours ahead of British Summer Time.

It continues for a mindbending 50 hours, until midnight on Baker Island and Howland Island, two uninhabited atolls which are actually further west than Kiritimati Island but which sit on the other side of the International Date Line. Both islands are 12 hours behind GMT/UTC, or 13 hours behind BST.

With 50 hours to play with, you have plenty of time to get something written, published and into our collection! (Hint: You can actually add your story at any time, we’re not that strict!)

FAQ

Got a question? See if our FAQ answers it. Key things to remember are:

  • You don’t have to write a blog post, you can use whatever medium you like. Some people blog, others write Facebook posts, do podcasts, draw comics or make videos. Do whatever you prefer to do!
  • Anyone can get involved! Men, women, boys, girls, everyone can take part in Ada Lovelace Day.
  • Celebrate in whichever language you like! Although this site is written in English, we get contributions from around the world in many different languages. Just make sure to tell us which language you have written in so we can help other speakers find your post.
  • When you add your story to our collection, make sure you use the story-specific URL, also called a ‘permalink’, not general address of your blog or of Facebook. This will make it easier for people to find your story in the future.

If you have any questions not answered by the FAQ, get in touch.

Ada Lovelace Day 2013

If you want to get near year’s Ada Lovelace Day in the diary early, then make a note that it will be held on Tuesday 15 October 2013.

People often ask why Ada Lovelace Day is the day that it is. The explanation is rather mundane: the date is arbitrary, chosen in an attempt to make the day maximally convenient for the most number of people. We have tried to avoid major public holidays, school holidays, exam season, and times of the year when people might be hibernating.

Why not just used Ada’s birthday? Well, Ada was born on 10 December and, in the UK where Ada Lovelace Day is based, December is swamped by Christmas parties, making venue hire tricky and putting us in competition with traditionally unmissable employee booze-ups. Given her tragically early death at just 36, it would feel inappropriate to celebrate her deathday on 27 November.

 

Holding your own event?

If you want to hold your own event on Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM, please do let us know. We will happily include your event in our calendar for next year. And remember, it’s never too early to start planning!

 

    

Stay in touch!

To stay up to date with details of this year’s event, follow us on Twitter or sign
up to the newsletter.

Worldwide events

We had independent events celebrating Ada Lovelace Day across the UK, as well as in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden and the USA. See what happened on our Worldwide Events page.

 

XX Game Jam

We were delighted to have partnered with the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment and the London Games Festival to put on the XX Game Jam, an all-female games hackday where teams will compete to produce the best computer game in just 24 hours. Held on the 26th and 27th October, it was the first all-women event of its type.