Constructing a computing competition to teach teamwork

Education has often been concerned with transferring information to students rather than building skills they need to thrive in today's world. Employers are as interested in a student's ability to work effectively in a team as in their technical ability In 2000 the Computer Society set up a design competition to promote the very skills students require in the workplace. Unlike competitions stressing fast thinking underpressure, the Computer Society's competition operates over six months and requires four undergraduates to specify a computer-based solution to a problem, build a system, test it, and then document it. Students are given an open-ended problem in December and asked to exhibit a working product at the World Finals in June. Students submit 30-page reports covering the design and testing of their system. Moreover, the students should employ good software engineering practice. The top ten teams demonstrate their projects to an international team of judges. At the World Finals students have to demonstrate an ability to sell their product to the world by multimedia-based presentations, short promotional films, or even role-playing. The paper discusses the competition's background, its development, and its future direction.