Andrea DuMont wants to set free the engineer inside.

“My mission is to encourage and empower young women and girls who might be interested in the field of engineering and help to foster social enthusiasm for the lifestyle,” says DuMont, GeoE’11.

A self-described water engineer by day and independent blogger by lunch break, DuMont has a website called The Watermark and an Instagram account @dumontandi. On them, an aspiring engineer can find stories about computational fluid dynamics, spicy sweet potato chipotle chili — and “drinking recycled poopwater.”

That last topic rates high on the ick meter, but “if it’s good enough for astronauts, it’s good enough for me,” DuMont says. In easy-to-understand language, complete with graphics, she explains how wastewater can be turned into potable water that comes out of your tap. With natural aquifers being depleted around the globe, DuMont predicts that treating wastewater will become more ordinary — and more necessary.

Demystifying engineering and showing how it benefits the world is all part of DuMont’s mission.

“I’ve been working lately to get the message out that, ‘Hey this is what female engineers do,’” she says. “It’s not just math in cubicles all day long.”