Image description: This moth was found trapped in the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University on September 9, 1945. Image courtesy of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a day to celebrate achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. There are many women in government who have made notable contributions to these fields.

One such woman is Naval Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, also known as “Amazing Grace.” She conceptualized one of the first computer programming languages and is generally credited with popularizing the term “debugging” for fixing computer glitches – which was motivated by including an actual moth removed from the computer in the log book. 

Learn more about Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper and Ada Lovelace Day.

Photo “Happy Pi Day (to the 36th digit)” taken by Mykl Roventine on Flickr

Celebrated on March 14, Pi Day’s purpose is to raise awareness about math education.

Pi, often shortened to 3.14, represents the relationship between the width of a circle and its circumference.