Since 2011 CERN has been running a BOINC project where currently several thousand volunteers are contributing spare CPU cycles to help CERN physicists compare their latest theoretical models with real experimental data from the LHC and other accelerators. This "LHC@home Test4Theory" BOINC project site is at http://lhcathome2.cern.ch/test4theory/index.php. However, we have found that this approach requires considerable computing savvy on the part of successful volunteers.

We are building a new, slick, web based system for doing this better and simpler, and that will be the basis of the hacking this weekend. Our aim is to attract, later this year, many thousands of new volunteers with minimal computing skills to participate in the project, including a "Virtual LHC Challenge" where computed events will be simulated at the same rate as the LHC would produce them if it were actually running (it's currently closed down for improvements).