ESWEEK Organization and Operational Structure (May 2021)

This document describes the main organizational structure and operational procedures put in place for ESWEEK. The document contains a general set of guidelines that have been reviewed by the ESWEEK Steering Committee (SC); the ESWEEK SC may modify/change these guidelines from year to year.

Version History:

  • December 2014: The ESWEEK SC unanimously approved the original version of this document.
  • November 2015: The position of “ESWEEK Conference Chair” was approved in November 2015.
  • May 2021: The ESWEEK SC is expanded to include a rotating pool of 4 GC-level individuals: past 2 GCs + current GC + next GC (i.e., VGC). Approved May 2021.

ESWEEK Conferences and Associated Events

ESWEEK is comprised of 3 main conferences and several associated workshops. There is a single budget for the 3 conferences and workshops. They also share the same sponsoring societies. The IEEE and ACM sponsor ESWEEK and therefore all technical events inside ESWEEK. For example, the CODES+ISSS Proceedings show that it is sponsored by ACM and IEEE.
Although all events share one budget, a strong effort is made to make sure each event individually is financially in the black.

The 3 main conferences in ESWEEK are:

  1. CASES (International Conference on Compilers, Architecture, and Synthesis for Embedded Systems, www.casesconference.org)
  2. CODES+ISSS (International Conference on Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis, www.codes-isss.org)
  3. EMSOFT (International Conference on Embedded Software, www.emsoft.org)

All three conferences are held in parallel with sessions lined up to allow attendees to move from one conference to another freely. Each registered person is allowed to attend sessions in any of the 3 conferences, and receives proceedings for all the conferences (one registration pays all!). ESWEEK normally organizes a free tutorial day with 4 half-day tutorials.

The three main conferences in ESWEEK typically share 3 keynote speeches, 2 panels, 3 special sessions, the tutorials selected by the SC, and all their own technical papers. The respectively responsible chairs (keynotes: General Chair; panels: Panels Chair; special sessions: each conference’s TPC Chair; and tutorials: Tutorials Chair) select speakers and content with the goal of forming a comprehensive and complementary program, under the overall guidance of the General Chair.

ESWEEK hosts several workshops in related areas, which allows attendees the opportunity to delve for 1-2 days into emerging as well as focused topics in much more detail. Workshops share their registration – one registration allows attendance to all workshops. Workshop registration is separate from ESWEEK registration.

Guest events are also welcome to join ESWEEK as co-located events in the same location/dates, but are handled separately budget-wise and sponsor-wise. That is, ESWEEK may help with some of the publicity and with the venue arrangements, but guest events pay their own expenses and are fully responsible for securing their own sponsorship. These guest events must request the SC for permission to colocate every year. In the past events such as NOCS, ESTIMedia, RSP, FORMATS and GPCE have been colocated with ESWEEK.

ESWEEK normally seeks support from companies by means of grants/donations in exchange for putting their company names and logos during refreshment breaks, meals, in the proceedings, web sites and other materials.

All the dates are unified across the 3 conferences. The Call-For-Papers (CFP) goes out in the name of ESWEEK, but with sub-sections for each conference. The same submission deadline, and camera-ready deadline is used by the 3 conferences. There is one centralized paper submission web site in which the author then selects which conference he/she wants to submit the paper.
Starting in 2009, we have decided to use the same page length for submissions for all 3 conferences, to discourage authors from choosing the conference based on the paper length.

ESWEEK Committees

ESWEEK has three major sets of committees:

  1. ESWEEK Steering Committee (SC), which provides year-to-year guidance for the event.
  2. ESWEEK Organizing Committee (OC), which changes every year and manages the organization of each ESWEEK event.
  3. Technical Program Committee (TPC) for each conference/workshop affiliated with ESWEEK.

All committees need to work in close cooperation to ensure success of the entire event.

The roles and responsibilities of the ESWEEK SC and OC are outlined below.

ESWEEK Steering Committee (SC)

ESWEEK is led by the Steering Committee (SC) that provides long-term continuity and guidance for the event. The SC is responsible for the further development of these organizational and operational structures.

The SC has ten voting members:

  • 2 members from each conference (CASES, CODES+ISSS, and EMSOFT), and
  • A rotating pool of 4 GCs: past 2 GCs (i.e., PPGC,PGC) + current GC + next GC (i.e., VGC).
  • The SC elects a Chair from the pool of SC conference representatives (SC Chair).
  • In the unlikely event of any split (even) votes, the SC Chair is authorized to resolve the vote after further consultation with SC members.

The SC has been expanded to include a pool of four rotating GCs who will: enable effective planning of ongoing and future events; serve as a resource for the current and next GC in navigating professional society sponsorship issues; enhance fund raising for ESWEEK; provide historical context for recent ESWEEK organization; and strengthen the leadership pipeline for ESWEEK.

The ESWEEK SC will hold at least one annual face-to-face meeting — typically during the ESWEEK event — where the current General Chair gives a report on the event, lessons learned, and suggestions for improvement. If appropriate, other members of the Organizing Committee (e.g., local arrangements) may also be invited to give a report.

Sponsoring society liaisons will be invited to face-to-face SC meetings. They will be included in the site selection discussions and other discussions as deemed appropriate by the SC Chair. Society liaisons may participate in these discussions but will not have a vote on any SC matter. The ESWEEK SC can define the co-located workshops for every event, well ahead of time to give sufficient time for their organization. The Workshop Chair shall propose the events of a year.

ESWEEK Organizing Committee (OC)

The organization of ESWEEK is managed by an ESWEEK Organizing Committee (OC), while the technical program for the event is managed by each conference’s Technical Program Committee (TPC). Functions that can be shared across the event (e.g., Publications Chair) belong to the ESWEEK OC, whereas functions that are unique to each conference (e.g., Technical Program Chair) belong to each conference’s TPC. All committees need to work in close cooperation to ensure success of the entire event.

The ESWEEK Organizing Committee has the following positions that represent the entire ESWEEK event (i.e., in the name of the 3 conferences and all workshops).

  • General Chair (GC)
    • Main organizing position. The person who will keep all the sub-events in check and make sure everybody else does their job. This person is responsible for the keynote speeches (selecting them in agreement with the other chairs, inviting the speakers, etc). Responsible for overseeing fund-raising for the event, from: companies (with help of Industry Liaison); local city and governments; local universities and research labs; and other sources for giving donations, hosting receptions/banquets, organizing historical tours etc. The GC transitions to Past General Chair (PGC) after the current event is over.
  • Vice-General Chair (VGC)
    • 2nd main organizing position, will divide up the whip cracking roles. The VGC transitions to the next General Chair (GC) after the current event is over.
  • Conference Chair (CC)
    • The ESWEEK Conference Chair serves as a single “external face” in the form of a well-recognized local academic/researcher who has the visibility and gravitas to help the organizing team raise local funding, liaise with local officials, and improve local academic/industry participation. The ESWEEK Conference Chair position is an “honorary” title, with little operational responsibility. The organizational team can use this visible title for soliciting local support from universities, the city, government, foundations, etc. The ESWEEK Conference Chair (as a respected local researcher), can also help with mobilizing additional attendance at the ESWEEK event. In rare/unforeseen instances (e.g., communication breakdown in the organizing team), the ESWEEK Conference Chair can also step in to help resolve and smoothen the local organization for ESWEEK.
  • Local Arrangements Chair
    • Responsible for the organization of the venue, rooms, transportation, etc. Contact point with the conference center and hotel if applicable.
  • Finance Chair
    • Responsible for the TMRF, approval by the societies (ACM/IEEE), and all the
      financial bookkeeping of the event.
  • Industry Liaison Chair
    • Responsible for soliciting donations from companies. The chair heads the Industry Liaison Committee which is selected by the General and the Finance Chairs.
  • Publications Chair
    • Responsible for coordinating final submission of ESWeek accepted manuscripts, production of the proceedings, and making sure all goes well with the publisher
  • Publicity Chair(s)
    • Responsible for promoting the conference in all possible ways
  • Tutorials Chair
    • In consultation with the General Chair and the 3 Technical Program Chairs, this person will organize the tutorials (although the speakers may be contacted by other people)
  • Workshops Chair
    • Coordinates workshop proposal submission, evaluation, and selection in consultation with the General Chair and the 3 Technical Program Chairs
  • Panels Chair
    • Coordinates selection of ESWEEK panels together with the Technical Program Chairs
  • Awards Chair
    • Coordinate the awards given by each conference (i.e., best paper). The responsibility for choosing the best papers obviously falls with the corresponding technical program chairs of each conference.
  • Web Chair
    • Responsible for maintaining the ESWEEK web sites
  • Registration Chair
    • If needed. Sometimes the registration is outsourced, thus almost eliminating the need for this position.
  • Regional Liaisons
    • If needed. Liaisons in different regions of the world to help with publicity and contact companies for support.
  • Technical Program Chairs of CASES, CODES+ISSS, and EMSOFT
    • The 3 TPC Chairs are also part of the ESWEEK Organizing Committee and should be consulted and take part in any decision regarding the technical program of the conference.

ESWEEK (Vice-)General Chair Selection and VCG/GC/PGC Succession Pipeline

ESWEEK will use a ladder scheme to promote people to the GC position. There will be one General Chair (GC) and one Vice-General Chair (VGC) every year. Both will have overall responsibilities for the organization of ESWEEK in that year. The VGC will take over the GC position in the following year, and a new VGC will be appointed by the current ESWEEK (SC+GC+VGC).

It is expected that the GC will have more responsibilities than the VGC, but the VGC should be constantly involved and copied in all communication, and responsible for some of the overseeing activities. The GC/VGC team can determine the exact breakdown of responsibilities by mutual agreement.

The “ladder” scheme for succession also dictates that VGC candidates should have experience working in the conference organization in at least one of the following roles: Finance Chair, Industry Liaison Chair, or Local Arrangements Chair, in any previous year. However, it is possible that if no appropriate candidates are found, other chair positions may be promoted to VGC. This implies that the SC (and in particular the GC+VGC) should be choosing the finance/liaison/Local chairs every year with an eye for the following year (when one of them may become VGC).

If none of the current finance/liaison/local and other chairs serve as VGC, the current SC can select a new VGC who is not a current finance/liaison/local/other chair, preferably from chairs in the previous ESWEEK events.

Note that this ladder scheme requires VGC/GC/PGC/PPGC candidates to commit to working for the conference for at least 4 years, and provides for some level of continuity in the organization of ESWEEK.

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Document History

  • December 2014: Approved by ESWEEK SC
  • November 2015: Added position of ESWEEK Conference Chair to OC
  • May 2021: Expand the ESWEEK SC to include a rotating pool of 4 GC-level individuals: past 2 GCs (PPGC, PGC) + current GC + next GC (i.e., VGC)

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ESWEEK 2021 SC Composition

Nikil Dutt ,
“X. Sharon Hu” ,
Christoph Kirsch ,
Wang Yi ,
Vinod Kathail ,
joerg henkel ,

Andreas Gerstlauer : 2021 GC
Aviral Shrivastava : 2021 VGC
Tulika Mitra : 2021 PGC
Petru Eles : 2021 PPGC

ESWEEK 2021 Society Representatives:

Atienza Alonso David : IEEE CEDA/CAS
Steve (Xue) Liu .: ACM SIGBED
(was James Anderson)
Erik Altman : ACM SIGMICRO
Sudeep Pasricha : ACM SIGDA

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ESWEEK 2022 SC

Nikil Dutt ,
Petru Eles ,
Christoph Kirsch ,
Wang Yi ,
Vinod Kathail ,
joerg henkel ,

Aviral Shrivastava : 2022 GC
“X. Sharon Hu” : 2022 VGC
Andreas Gerstlauer : 2022 PGC
Tulika Mitra : 2022 PPGC

ESWEEK 2022 Society Representatives:

Atienza Alonso David : IEEE CEDA/CAS
Wanli Chang : ACM SIGBED
Erik Altman : ACM SIGMICRO
Sudeep Pasricha : ACM SIGDA

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Links to Other docs

ESWEEK OC History (maintained by Andreas Gerstlauer) :
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cTx_wlH0Ni-5BUwW6WoR14QB_VmQDojXMxBvsgUc1rc/edit#gid=0