Remembering Ada Lovelace’s life and work is bittersweet. She was a trailblazing visionary, able to articulate the computational process 100 years before the first analytical machine was developed. She was also alive in the 19th century, when women were not considered full citizens, could not access university and could not vote in parliamentary elections. Ada was able to pursue her passion in part due to her privilege. She had a supportive and wealthy family who arranged private tuition and introductions to leading academics. I can’t, however, think of Ada without thinking of all the other women alive at that time with extraordinary potential insights, who lacked an environment that would enable them to realise their potential.