BSHM Christmas meeting Birmingham, 5 December 2015

purpose computer, the analytical engine, designed but never built by Charles Babbage. Professor Martin showed how Lovelace’s paper presented the analytical engine as an abstract machine. Also drawing on correspondence between Lovelace and Babbage she described how Lovelace’s speculations on the capabilities and potential of the machine mirror the concerns of modern computer scientists. We also heard what a remarkable person Lovelace was, not only in her background but in her efforts to learn, mathematics in particular, and her ambitions. Drawing on original sources and evaluating secondary material we were presented with a fresh and stimulating evaluation of Lovelace who was born in 1815, dying at age 36. We were all invited to visit the Ada Lovelace mathematical archive to help assess for ourselves this remarkable person. This archive draws on recent archival research and will be released online at www.claymath.org in December 2015. All the lectures were not only informative and stimulating but very enjoyable. If you were unable to be there or simply wish to relive the experience the lectures are available online at: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/women-in-mathematics-the-bicentenary-of-adalovelace Raymond Flood http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2016.1215857