PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS)This paper presents the outcomes of the longitudinal administration of the Persistence in Engineering survey. The goal was to identify correlates of persistence in undergraduate engineering education and professional engineering practice. DESIGN/METHODThe survey was administered seven times over four years to a cohort of students who had expressed interest in studying engineering. At the end of the study, the participants were categorized as persisters or non-persisters. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used, in conjunction with other approaches, to test for differences between the groups. RESULTSPersisters and non-persisters did not differ significantly according to the majority of the constructs. Nevertheless, parental and high school mentor influences as a motivation to study engineering, as well as confidence in math and science skills, were identified as correlates of persistence. Intention to complete an engineering major was also a correlate of persistence; it appears to decline sharply at least two semesters prior to students leaving engineering. The findings also suggest that there might be differences among non-persisters when they are further grouped by when they leave engineering. CONCLUSIONSFacilitating higher levels of mentor involvement before college might increase student motivation to study engineering, and also constitute a mechanism for fostering confidence in math and science skills. Since the intention to complete an engineering degree decreases well before students act, there may be opportunities for institutions to develop targeted interventions for students, and help them make informed decisions.

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Integrated product and process development is accomplished by multidisciplinary teams To support the team approach we have de veloped ICM the Interdisciplinary Communication Medium It accommodates and integrates many perspectives within a design and manufactur ing enterprise The ICM prototype integrates a shared graphic modeling environment and network based services The graphics include 3D models of evolving designs and network based services include knowledge-based reasoning tools that critique the performance of the proposed device ICM implements an iterative communication cycle in which team members (1) propose form models in a shared graphic modeling en vironment, (2) interpret the shared graphic models as semantic discipline models (3) gather information by using the discipline models to cus tomize their search for additional discipline information (4) critique the discipline models to derive behavior and compare it to function (5) explain the results to other members of the team and (6) route change notifications for proposed changes