As a teenager, she met a man by the name of Charles Babbage. Charles was an inventor and had been working on a machine that would help people solve Math problems. Charles explained his machine to Ada and told her about all the things he hoped it would do. Ada was one of the few people who thought that Babbage’s invention might be used in math, science, and the arts.
But Charles had a problem. He had a difficult time trying to explain to other people how his “computer engine” worked
and how it could help solve real-world problems. Because Ada had a gift for words, she helped Charles write a set of directions for the computer engine. Working together, Ada and Charles wrote letters, exchanged ideas, and made improvements to the computer. Ada explained how the computer worked and described a step-by-step plan to solve certain math problems using the engine. This plan is considered the first computer program, even though the engine was never finished.