Category Archives: School of Computing and Engineering

Historical blogs with content relating to the School of Computing and Engineering

Collecting UWL’s Covid-19 memories

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UWL archives NEED YOUR HELP to record the experiences of students and staff during the Covid-19 pandemic

UWL Archives

The situation has had an impact on all our lives and we need your stories to record what life has been like during lockdown. Future generations will look back at the pandemic as a key point in history so collecting records of our experiences will be crucial to help people understand how we have all lived through these past few months.

CC. Philafrenzy

We welcome anything that you have created/collected relating to the pandemic. You may have taken photos during your daily exercise around Ealing or your own local area; perhaps you created video diaries of your studies from home, or were inspired to record musical compositions or performances. We are also interested in collecting physical artworks, social distancing notices or messages of support for key workers hung in windows. Whatever it is, we encourage you to send it to us in order to create an archive of Covid-19 memories.

We are particularly keen to focus on the following areas for collecting:

  • How the physical spaces at UWL and the surrounding area have been transformed from busy and bustling to quiet and eerie;
  • The effects on students and staff working in the NHS and social care;
  • How students have reacted to and coped with the changes of moving learning online;
  • The changes to ways of working for staff including the challenges of working from home

Please contact anne-marie.purcell@uwl.ac.uk for further information about this project. Any material donated will be safely stored by UWL Archives indefinitely and will be available to researchers of the future. Donations containing sensitive personal information are subject to the Data Protection Act 2018.

 

Ada Lovelace

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Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and his wife, Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke or Lady Wentworth (commonly known as Lady Byron).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Ada_Lovelace.jpg

Lovelace was a pioneer of computer science, an English Mathematician and writer who became friends with Charles Babbage, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.  Ada is known for her work on Babbage’s designs for a mechanical general-purpose computer, known as the ‘analytical engine’. Lovelace was the first to recognise that the machine had uses beyond calculation or number crunching and published the first computer program. She is often regarded as the first computer programmer over 100 years before modern computers were even created. Lovelace’s educational talents brought her into contact with scientists such as Andrew Crosse, Sir David Brewster, Charles Wheatstone, Michael Faraday, and the author Charles Dickens. Ada’s privileged social standing and liberal parents enabled her to be educated in subjects usually reserved for men of her era. Lovelace taught at the Ealing Grove Industrial School founded by Lady Byron; the first of its kind for under-privileged children.

Ada married William King in 1835. King was made Earl of Lovelace in 1838 and Ada become Countess of Lovelace. They had three children. Ada died at the age of 36 – the same age at which her father had died – in 1852, from cancer of the womb. Since her death Lovelace has received many posthumous accolades for her work.

The second Tuesday of October marks Ada Lovelace day in recognition of her groundbreaking contribution to computer technology.

Sources:

Wikipedia/AdaLovelace

Ada Lovelace day: we should never forget the first computer programmer

 

UWL Archives

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UWL Archives contains historical collections relating to the history of UWL as well as the Heathrow Archive.

The archive is based on the third floor of the Paul Hamlyn library at the Ealing Campus. Visits are arranged by appointment only, please contact the archivist in advance using the contact details on our web page:

https://www.uwl.ac.uk/library/library-services/university-west-london-archive