Teamwork Training for Programming Contests: (Abstract Only)

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is the most popular programming competition for universities worldwide. This contest examines the comprehensive ability of teams to program to solve problems. Teamwork is important besides team members' personal skills and capabilities. There have been literature on computer algorithms, personal training for programming contests, and team strategies during the contests. However, few articles involve team building and teamwork training for programming contests. This poster hopes to provide guidance and reference for coaches and contestants in teamwork training for programming contests, so that a team can benefit most from limited time of training to make as great progress as possible. This poster shares the authors' experience in team training for ICPC. Knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) of teamwork for programming contests are concluded and presented in details. The authors represent various teamwork methods graphically, so that it is visually helpful for study and discussion. These teamwork methods are pure teamwork, no-teamwork, some paired methods, and the method preferred by the authors. A team training form is then proposed to record the team behaviors in team training. By examining the training record, the coach and the team themselves can discover the team's strengths and weaknesses in various aspects, and evaluate the teamwork quality in the ways of communication, coordination, balance of member contributions and mutual support. Handouts will be available showing various teamwork methods in a graphical representation and some real training record forms.