When O'Kane was in her first lecturer position at the University of Technology, Sydney, in the 1970s, her boss, professor John Debenham, was one of the first to teach Lovelace’s life and work to students. “I think he was distantly related to the Lovelaces or something,” O’Kane recounted.

Regardless, O’Kane spent much of her early academic career talking about Lovelace. She says this served to remind her of what women can do in engineering.