A celebration of STEM: Ada Lovelace Day 2026

Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration, held on the second Tuesday of October, honouring the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

The College of Systems and Society is coming together as a community of students, academics and professional staff to celebrate every field in the college and the pioneers across them.

Drop in any time to:

• write postcards
• make badges
• create poetry magnets and bookmarks
• learn about Ada Lovelace and the history of computing
• chat to student groups

Special events (limited spots, register for each one)

• 10:30 to 11:30am, Welcome and panel. A welcome from College Dean Professor Aaron Quigley, then a panel on Ada's legacy, the challenges women face in their disciplines today and the future of women in STEM, with Professor Lilia Ferrario, Associate Professor Maia Gould, Associate Professor Zena Assaad, Associate Professor Will Grant, Dr Edwina Fingleton-Smith and Sandy Ma (TBC).
• 11:30am to 12pm, Refreshments.
• 12 to 1pm, Woven Code. A hands-on loom-weaving session with artist and educator Sandy Ma (School of Computing) on the textile histories that built the first computers. Take home a weaving encoded with a secret binary message.
• 1 to 2pm, Ada Lovelace board game with Thomas Biedermann (School of Cybernetics).
• 2 to 3:30pm, LLMs Unplugged, Ada Lovelace edition with Ben Swift and Cole Cooney.

When: 10am to 3:30pm, Tuesday 13 October 2026
Where: Innovation Space, Level 2, Birch Building [35], 35 Science Road, Acton
Cost: free, registration required

The suggested preparation is to "do your research" into the activity/event. For example, if you are going to see a guest speaker present, do a little background research, such as spending some time reading their latest work, finding out about them (ie wikipedia, etc), or listening to an interview with them.