Capture the Flag for Team Construction in Cybersecurity

Abstract: Team collaboration among individuals with diverse sets of expertise and skills is essential for solving complex problems. As part of an interdisciplinary effort, we studied the effects of Capture the Flag (CTF) game, a popular and engaging education/training tool in cybersecurity and engineering, in enhancing team construction and collaboration. We developed a framework to incorporate CTF as part of a computer-human process for expertise recognition and role assignment and evaluated and tested its effectiveness through a study with cybersecurity students enrolled in a Virtual Teams course. In our computer-human process framework, the post-CTF algorithm using the CTF outcomes assembles the team (assigning individuals to teams) and provides the initial role assignments, which then gets updated by human-based team discussions. This paper shares our insights, design choices/rationales, and analyses of our CTF-incorporated computer-human process framework. The students' evaluations revealed that the computer-human process framework was helpful in learning about their team members' backgrounds and expertise and assigning roles accordingly made a positive impact on the learning outcomes for the team collaboration skills in the course. This experience report showcases the utility of CTF as a tool for expertise recognition and role assignments in teams and highlights the complementary roles of CTF-based and discussion-based processes for an effective team collaboration among engineering students.