Purpose and Role

The DSA Steering Committee (SC) is the principal governing body responsible for providing strategic direction, continuity, and long-term oversight for the International Conference on Dependable Systems and Their Applications. Its primary function is to guide the development and evolution of the conference and to support the leadership team of each annual DSA conference in successfully planning and executing the event.

The Steering Committee is responsible for safeguarding the continuity, quality, reputation, and long-term sustainability of DSA. It provides institutional knowledge, strategic guidance, and oversight while allowing each year's Organizing Committee appropriate flexibility and authority to manage the operational aspects of the conference.

Members of the Steering Committee generally have substantial experience with DSA or closely related conferences and professional activities. Many have served in key conference leadership roles. Their collective experience provides an important body of institutional knowledge that can help successive organizing teams maintain consistency and quality from one conference year to the next.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Steering Committee include, but are not limited to, the following:

Provide Strategic Direction: Establish, periodically review, and refine DSA's long-term vision, goals, and strategic direction to ensure the conference continues to serve the needs of the international research, engineering, and professional communities.
Select Future Conferences and Leadership Teams: Identify and approve future conference locations and host institutions, and appoint appropriate leadership teams, including General Chairs and other key conference leaders.
Support Conference Leadership: Provide advice, guidance, and institutional knowledge to the current conference leadership team to facilitate effective planning, organization, and successful execution of each DSA conference.
Maintain Continuity and Institutional Knowledge: Preserve and transfer knowledge, experience, policies, procedures, and successful practices from one conference year to the next. This responsibility is particularly important as conference leadership, host institutions, and geographic locations change over time.
Oversee the Long-Term Evolution of DSA: Guide the continued development of the conference, including its technical scope, areas of emphasis, conference structure, publication strategy, and mechanisms for serving the dependable systems and applications community.
Monitor Technical Directions and Emerging Areas: Assess important developments and emerging trends in dependability, reliability, security, safety, resilience, trustworthy computing, artificial intelligence, and related areas, and determine whether new topics, tracks, workshops, panels, tutorials, or other activities should be incorporated into future DSA conferences.
Promote Technical Quality and Professional Standards: Help maintain high standards for the technical program, peer-review process, publications, conference organization, and other professional activities associated with DSA.
Strengthen the DSA Community: Encourage broader participation and collaboration among researchers, practitioners, industry representatives, government organizations, professional societies, and students. The Steering Committee should also support mechanisms for developing emerging researchers and future conference leaders.
Promote International Participation: Encourage DSA to maintain and strengthen its international character by ensuring appropriate geographic diversity across conference locations, leadership teams, committees, speakers, and participants.
Address Matters Affecting the Conference Series: Review and provide guidance on significant issues that may affect DSA's identity, reputation, governance, sustainability, or future development.

Composition of the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee comprises distinguished members of the international research and professional community who collectively provide broad technical expertise, leadership experience, institutional knowledge, and geographic representation.

Members should be recognized leaders in one or more technical areas relevant to the scope of DSA and typically hold, or have held, significant leadership responsibilities in academia, industry, government, professional societies, or the broader research community.

Steering Committee members are expected to have a strong understanding of current and emerging developments in academia, industry, and government related to dependable and trustworthy systems and applications. Such expertise enables the Steering Committee to anticipate changes in the field and guide DSA in responding effectively to new technical challenges, research opportunities, and community needs.

Whenever practical, the Steering Committee should maintain an appropriate balance of technical expertise, geographic representation, institutional diversity, leadership experience, and continuity of conference knowledge. Membership should evolve over time to introduce new perspectives, broaden representation, and develop the next generation of DSA leadership while preserving sufficient institutional knowledge to ensure continuity.

Through these responsibilities, the Steering Committee provides the governance framework necessary to preserve the identity, quality, and traditions of DSA while enabling the conference to evolve in response to advances in research and technology and the changing needs of the international dependable systems and applications community.