Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM.

Founded in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson, it is now held every year on the second Tuesday of October. It features a flagship Ada Lovelace Day Live! ‘science cabaret’ event in London, UK, at which women in STEM give short talks about their work or about other women who have inspired them, or perform short comedy or musical interludes with a STEM focus.

Last year, ALD Live! was held on 9 October, at The IET in London. We had a fabulous line-up of speakers, including epidemiologist Prof Sunetra Gupta, computer scientist Chanuki Seresinhe, palaeontologist Dr Susie Maidment, engineer Dr Hilary Costello, mathematician Prof Emma McCoy, marine scientist Dr Diva Amon, and science demo builder Natasha Simons. Our compère once again was geek songstress and one third of Festival of the Spoken Nerd, Helen Arney! Plus we had a book signing by Sue Nelson who was signing copies of her book, Wally Funk's Race for Space.

This year, we will again be at the The IET in London, on Tuesday 8 October, and if you'd like a taster of ALD Live!, watch the last few years' talks on YouTube.

Ada Lovelace Day also includes dozens of grassroots events around the world, organised entirely independently from the ALD Live! event. These events take many forms — from conferences to Wikipedia ‘edit-a-thons’ to pub quizzes — and appeal to all ages, from girls to university students to women with well-established careers. Every year, people in dozens of countries across six continents put on their own event to support women in their own communities. You'll be able to find out if there's an event near you on our map. But don't risk missing out – organise your own event!