The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage | Sydney Padua | Talks at Google

Special-effects designer, cartoonist, and tireless researcher Sydney Padua visited Google's Cambridge, MA office to discuss her book "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer".

The graphic novel creates a world where Ada Lovelace did not die of cancer, and Charles Babbage did build his Difference Engine. The dynamic duo build runaway economic models, battle the scourge of spelling errors, explore the wilder realms of mathematics, and fight crime—for London, for science! The book comes complete with extensive footnotes that rival those penned by Lovelace herself, historical curiosities, and never-before-seen diagrams of Babbage’s mechanical, steam-powered computer.

Sydney Padua is an animator and visual effects artist, usually employed in making giant monsters appear to be attacking people for the movies. She started drawing comics by accident and is still trying to figure out how to stop. Originally from the Canadian prairie, she now lives in London with her husband and far too many books.