Method to Detect Similarity in Source Code in Programs used in Engineering

In this research, a method is presented to find similarity between source codes of the Pseint language, which is used in the teaching of programming in mechanical, civil and systems engineering. The code is quantized with values from 0 to 255 forming histograms for each tokens extracted. Pearson's correlation is used to find similarity throughout the code, in the use of variables and control structures. The correlation value greater than 0.8 determines the similarity between the different programs. This method can help the tutor to find similarities, but it can also reorient the teaching by analyzing the reason why the similarity is happening between different developers of the software.