We are delighted to announce the full programme for the Ada Lovelace Symposium on 9 and 10 December, and for the associated interdisciplinary workshop for graduate students and early-career researchers on 8 December.
Registration is now closed. All events take place in the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. Travel information https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/about-us/travel-maps Other information contact Sarah Baldwin <sarah.baldwin@cs.ox.ac.uk>
Livestreaming here http://livestream.com/oxuni/lovelace
Interdisciplinary workshop, Tuesday 8 December
‘Texts and contexts: the cultural legacies of Ada Lovelace’, an interdisciplinary workshop for graduate students and early-career researchers, will include papers on a wide variety of Lovelace-related topics, from Lovelace and Literature, to Lovelace and Lego. More details and abstracts here can be found at adalovelaceworkshop.wordpress.com.
Ada Lovelace Symposium, Wednesday 9 December
From 9.30am: Coffee and registration
11am: Session 1
Symposium Opening, Alexander Wolf, President of the ACM, Professor at Imperial College London
- 11.05am, Doron Swade, Royal Holloway, University of London
Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace: two visions of computing - 11.50am, Bernard Sufrin, University of Oxford
Interpreting dreams of abstract machines - 12.30pm, Adrian Johnstone, Royal Holloway, University of London
Notions and notations: designing computers before computing
1pm: Lunch
1.45pm: Session 2
Chair: Nick Woodhouse, President of the Clay Mathematics Institute
- 1.45pm, Ursula Martin, University of Oxford and Soren Riis, Queen Mary University of London
‘Ada Lovelace, a scientist in the archives - 2.30pm, David De Roure, University of Oxford and Emily Howard, Royal Northern College of Music and University of Liverpool
Turning numbers into notes - 3pm, John Barnes, Ada software consultant
From Byron to the Ada Programming Language - 3.15pm, The National Museum of Computing, ‘Write a letter to Ada’ competition prize giving
3.30pm: Break, refreshments
4pm: Session 3
Chair: Sir Drummond Bone, Master of Balliol College
- 4pm, Betty Toole, Author
Ada Lovelace lives forever: Ada’s four questions - 4.45pm, Richard Holmes, British Academy
Will you concede me Poetical Science?
5.45pm: Break and move to Reception and dinner
6.30pm: Reception and dinner
With Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, and the Rt Hon the Earl of Lytton, and the world premières of two short pieces composed by James Whitbourn, ‘An algorithmic study on ADA’ and ‘ADA’, performed by the choir Commotio, with Andrew Bernardi (violin) and Anna Lapwood (harp), conducted by Matthew Berry. Dinner, with address by Dame Stephanie Shirley
Thursday, 10th December
9am: Session 4
Chair: Vicki Hanson, Vice-President of the ACM, professor at University of Dundee and Rochester Institute of Technology9am, June Barrow-Green, Open University
- Pythagoras to pacifism: mathematics and archives
- 9.30am, Julia Markus, Hofstra University
The early education of Ada Byron - 10am, Christopher Hollings, University of Oxford
The mathematical correspondence of Ada Lovelace and Augustus De Morgan
10.30am: Break, refreshments
11am: Session 5
Chair: Sally Shuttleworth, Professor at University of Oxford
- 11am, Elizabeth Bruton, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford
Enchantress of Numbers or a mere debugger?: a brief history of cultural and academic understandings of Ada Lovelace - 11.30am, Imogen Forbes-Mcphail, University of California, Berkeley
The Analytical Engine and the Aeolian Harp - 12 noon,Sydney Padua, Graphic Artist and Animator
Imaginary engines
12.45pm: Lunch
1.30pm: Session 6
Chair: Michael Wooldridge, Head of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford
- 1.30 pm, Judith Grabiner, Pitzer College
Mathematics and culture: geometry and its ‘Figures in the Air’ - 2.15pm, Moshe Vardi, Rice University
‘Humans, machines, and the future of work
3pm: Break, and Ada Lovelace’s birthday cake
3.30pm: Panel
Enchantress of Abstraction, Bride of Science: must Ada Lovelace be a superheroine?
Chair: Muffy Calder, University of Glasgow
- Valerie Barr, Union College and Chair ACM-W
- Suw Charman-Anderson, Founder of Ada Lovelace Day
- Murray Pittock, University of Glasgow
- Cheryl Praeger, University of Western Australia
4.30pm: End