Borner (second from left), was joined by Laurie McRobbie and Mayor John Hamilton.
Katy Börner, a distinguished professor of engineering and information science at the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, was awarded the Ada Lovelace Award by the city of Bloomington Oct. 8 in recognition of her contributions to fields in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM).
The award was part of the inaugural celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, which honors the 19th century mathematician who is credited with writing the first computer algorithm and is regarded as the first computer programmer. The event was held at The Dimension Mill in downtown Bloomington, which hosted a panel discussion and a luncheon where Börner was honored.
“It is wonderful to have an annual Ada Lovelace Day in Bloomington to inspire, encourage, and celebrate the continuous growth of innovative computational thinking in STEAM,” Börner said. “I was honored to receive the award, and I hope Bloomington’s new information highway from the Cyberinfrastructure Building through the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the Kelley School of Business, the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, and SICE to the Dimension Mill is well travelled to reap the true benefits of IU’s research and development for Bloomington, Indiana, and beyond.”
The celebration included comments from Bloomington mayor John Hamilton, and the event included Laurie Burns McRobbie, the first lady of IU, and the chair of the Informatics department at SICE, Nathan Ensmenger, among others.
“It is critically important to reinsert the names of the traditionally underrepresented into the dominant narrative,” Hamilton said. “A fuller, richer, and more inclusive story of the past will take female change-agents like Ada Lovelace out of the exceptional space to which they have been relegated and normalize the place of women at the center of our society, be it as innovators, artists, entrepreneurs or any other pursuit.”