The Symposium, celebrating Ada Lovelace’s 200th birthday on 10th December 2015, is aimed at a broad audience of those interested in the history and culture of mathematics and computer science, presenting current scholarship on Lovelace’s life and work, and linking her ideas to contemporary thinking about computing, artificial intelligence and the brain. Keynote speakers include Richard Holmes, Doron Swade, Betty Toole, and Moshe Vardi.
Click here to register. The deadline for registration is Sunday 29th November at midnight.
Wednesday 9 December
From 9.30am: Coffee and registration in the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford
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: Vicki Hanson, Vice-President of the ACM, professor at University of Dundee and Rochester Institute of Technology
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
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 Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries
6.30pm: Reception
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
8pm: Dinner
At Balliol College, with address by Dame Stephanie Shirley
Thursday, 10th December
9am: Session 4
Chair: Nick Woodhouse, President of the Clay Mathematics Institute
9am, 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
Ada Lovelace
Contact name: Ursula Martin
Contact email: ursula.martin@cs.ox.ac.uk
Website: Ada Lovelace, Bodleian Library
Audience: Open to all
