Ada Lovelace
Charles Babbage —— A mathematics professor at Cambridge University who today is commonly recognized as the father of the computer. Babbage’s most notable invention was the analytical engine a brass and iron steam-powered machine he first envisioned in 1837. In 1843, he asked Ada to translate a description of his engine written by an Italian mathematician over the next nine months. She did that but also upended her own set of notes which ended up being three times longer than the actual translation. She also found some errors and corrected them. To demonstrate the machine’s possible applications, she also described how it could be used to calculate an arcane, brain-teasing sequence of figures known as Bernoulli numbers.
Michael Faraday —— One of Ada’s fans in Britain’s scientific community. A pioneering electrochemist.
Lillian Gilbreth
America’s First Lady of Engineering. She impacted the nation and the world. She pioneered numerous industrial engineering, management, and psychology principles with her husband, Frank Gilbreth. She juggled her responsibilities as a mother and career woman with skill and love integrating and interweaving her private and public personas both to challenge and to celebrate women’s traditional roles. Lillian was the first female member of the Society of Industrial Engineers, the first woman ever appointed to the National Academy of Engineering, and the first woman to receive the Hoover Medal for Distinguished Public Service. She worked with General Electric improving the efficiency of kitchens and kitchen appliances. She developed items such as refrigerator door shelves and the foot pedal garbage can. She improved surgical operating procedures. She is called the “ Mother of Industrial Engineering”.
