UPDATE: This production has been cancelled due to recent advances with the COVID-19 Outbreak. Please see “Important Update About Ada and the Engine” for more information.

Join us Sunday, April 26 for a post-show conversation with Joe Bates Oliver Strimpel. 

Two computer scientists dig into the collaboration between Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. Hint: it’s all about hardware vs. software.

Joseph Bates is a computer scientist and entrepreneur.  His technical activities have been varied, including artificial intelligence for automated mathematics, software tools for developing hardware, emotional interactive animated characters and computational drama, and approximate computing.  He was a professor and scientist for 20 years at Carnegie Mellon, the MIT AI and Media Labs, Cornell, where he received his PhD, and Johns Hopkins, which he entered at age 13.

Oliver Strimpel was curator and then Director of The Computer Museum in Boston for 14 years when the museum became internationally recognized for its collections and exhibits.  These ranged from the Cold War SAGE computer to the first microprocessors, and from the two-story Walk-Through Computer to the Virtual Fishtank interactive gallery. Prior to this, Oliver was curator at The Science Museum, London, where he created exhibits on computer technology and was responsible for the national collections of mathematics and computing including Babbage’s original Difference Engine No. 2 and a trial piece for the Analytical Engine.  Oliver is now a qualified patent attorney and Senior Patent Counsel at Avid Technology, Inc.

Oliver has a degree in physics, and advanced degrees in astronomy, astrophysics, and law.  He is a keen amateur geologist, visiting geologically unique corners of the planet, and pursuing research into the formation of the Himalaya.