The CHES Steering Committee (SC) coordinates CHES, the Conference on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, and TCHES, the IACR transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems. The CHES Steering Committee operates according to the "Rules and Guidelines for Steering Committees" of the IACR, the International Organization for Cryptologic Research.
The CHES Steering Committee consists of Temporary Members and Elected Members. All these members have a vote in decisions of the Steering Committee. Furthermore, the Steering Committee invites Guests and Observers, which do not have a vote.
1. CHES Program Chairs join the Steering Committee as Temporary Members for three (3) years. The three-year term starts on January 1st of the year of the CHES conference whose program they chair. Program Chairs join the Steering Committee as observers upon the confirmation of their appointment by IACR.
2. There are six Elected Members in the Steering Committee. They are elected by the Steering Committee for a period of three (3) years. The period starts on January 1st after election. Candidates can be nominated by any member of Steering Committee. Steering Committee Members who run for a position as an elected member do not have a vote in the decision about this position.
3. The General Chair of CHES in year n joins the Steering Committee as Observer upon the confirmation of his/her appointment by IACR. The observer status ends on December 31st of year n. Also in case of a team of General Chairs, only one General Chair joins the Steering Committee as observer.
The Steering Committee selects from its members:
1. The Chair of the Steering Committee for a period of two (2) years.
2. The Representative to the IACR for a period of three (3) years.
3. A publicity chair for a period of three (3) years.
4. More than one of these positions can be held by the same person. The SC can also select a Webmaster who does not have to be member of the SC. In this case, the Webmaster joins the SC as an observing member. The tenure of the Webmaster is two (2) years.
The Steering Committee meets at least once per year at the CHES conference. A decision is made, if the majority of the members present at the meeting votes in favour of it. In addition to the Steering Committee meetings, issues can also be discussed by email. In this case, a decision is made, if the majority of all Steering Committee members vote in favour of it.
The steering committee solicits proposals for locations and General Chairs of the CHES conference according to Sections 3 and 4 of the IACR Rules and Guidelines for General Chairs. It selects one of these proposals two years before the planned conference takes place. At this time also the selection of the Program Chairs for the planned conference is done. The Steering Committee recommends the selected proposal and the selected chairs to the IACR Board of Directors for approval, through its representative to IACR. The proposal should be ready for approval no later than for the IACR board meeting at Eurocrypt in the year before the planned CHES conference.
Votes by the CHES Steering Committee are done according the "IACR Voting Procedure for Appointments" of the IACR Board of Directors. The following additions/refinements hold for the CHES Steering Committee:
1. Votes by Email: Votes via email are done similar to the written vote, i.e. all members cast their vote independently and then the votes are displayed. Via email this is done as follows: All members write their vote via email to the chair of the steering committee (no other members of the SC are in copy). The chair collects all the votes and then sends a list with all names and votes to all the Steering Committee members. Votes via email are started by the chair of the steering committee and end after 48 hours. Members that do not cast their vote during this timeframe abstain from the vote.
2. Nomination: The nomination of a person requires providing a written CV of the person. This CV should in particular include a statement on the experience of working on Program/Steering Committees as well as a statement on the relationship to CHES.
3. Discussion: After all nominations are completed and before the approval vote start, there is a discussion phase. During this discussion phase, all members of the Steering Committee are encouraged to state their opinion and to add additional information on the nominated persons, venues or subjects.
4. Nomination, Discussion and Voting Procedure for PC Co-Chairs: CHES traditionally selects one PC co-chair from academia and one from industry. The process of selection runs as follows:
  1. Nomination process according (6.b) for candidates from academia.
  2. Nomination process according (6.b) for candidates from industry.
  3. Candidate discussion phase according (6.c).
  4. Approval vote for candidates from academia.
  5. Approval vote for candidates from industry.
  6. Discussion phase: The goal of this phase is to identify suitable pairs of candidates from the two lists (academia and industry). A pair is not suitable, if for example, a pair of candidates graduated from the same university or a pair of candidates does not cover a sufficiently wide range of research topics. The outcome of this discussion phase is the list of suitable pairs. Any member can request an approval vote on any pair on the list of pairs.
  7. The chair decides on the sequence of voting. Either first the candidate of academia is selected and then the candidate of industry or vice versa. Note that the second vote is restricted to candidates that form a suitable pair with the candidate selected in the first vote.
  8. Vote on the first PC co-chair.
  9. Vote on the second PC co-chair.
Any changes to the above rules, including the rules about membership, must be approved by the Steering Committee.

Approved by the CHES Steering Committee
September, 2024

These rules are also available for download as pdf.