Leiden Classical
Leiden Classical is a completed Volunteer computing project that ran on the BOINC platform, operated by the Theoretical Chemistry Department of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry at Leiden University in the Netherlands.[1] Unlike most BOINC projects, which distribute a single fixed scientific workload to volunteers, Leiden Classical was built around user-submitted simulations: any scientist, student, or volunteer could design and submit their own classical-mechanics simulation to be computed on the grid, with each participant receiving a personal job queue.[2]
The project officially launched on 5 December 2005[3] and operated for nearly thirteen years before being formally retired on 5 June 2018.[4]
Overview
Leiden Classical's tagline described it as a "Desktop Computer Grid dedicated to general Classical Dynamics for any scientist or science student."[5] Its core software, ClassicalDynamics, was a simulation engine and accompanying library written entirely in C++.[1] The ClassicalDynamics library itself was released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), while the main driving program was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).[1][6]
The project's official description framed its purpose as performing "surface science calculations using Classical Dynamics," distinguishing it from most other BOINC projects by allowing volunteers, students, and other scientists to submit their own personal calculations directly to the grid.[3][2] Two of the most commonly cited example use cases were simulating liquid argon, and testing the validity of the ideal gas law by direct simulation rather than theoretical derivation.[2]
The project ran on Windows and Linux clients and did not support GPU computation or an OpenGL screensaver.[7]
Simulation model
To submit a personal calculation, a participant's model required six defined components:[1]
- The colours used to represent the molecules in the simulation
- The bounding box in which the model was run
- The number of particles included in the simulation
- The type of interaction between particles, selectable from:
- Harmonic spring and harmonic bending terms, along with recurrent torsion interactions
- Distance and confirmation (boundary/constraint) parameters
The Lennard-Jones potential, one of the selectable pairwise interaction models, is given by:
where is the distance between two particles, is the depth of the potential well, and is the finite distance at which the inter-particle potential is zero.
The Morse interaction, an alternative pairwise model better suited to representing covalent bond vibration, is given by:
where is the well depth, is the equilibrium bond distance, and controls the width of the potential well.
This flexible, user-configurable approach allowed the grid to be applied to a range of small-scale classical and surface-science problems chosen by individual users rather than a single fixed research question, which was unusual among BOINC-based projects at the time.[3]
History
Leiden Classical was launched on 5 December 2005 by Leiden University,[3] based in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands. The project remained active for over a decade, continuing to accept volunteer participation through the BOINC manager client throughout this period.[1]
In its final news update, posted to the project's own news feed and referenced in community discussion, the project announced it had reached end-of-life status: automatic work generation and account creation were stopped, with the server scheduled to be taken offline before the end of 2018.[8]
On 5 June 2018, the project posted its final operational notice, stating that "the scheduler, file uploader and all other daemons have been stopped" and that the website would "stay online for some time still."[4] The announcement was relayed to the wider BOINC community via the official BOINC project forums later that month.[4]
Reception
Leiden Classical retained a small, dedicated base of volunteers across various national and team-based BOINC communities throughout its operation, including teams from Scotland, Catalonia, Australia, and Germany.[5][9][10][11] When the shutdown was announced on the Scottish Boinc Team forums, one volunteer who lived in Leiden described themselves as "devastated," while another recalled having cycled through the city.[8]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Leiden Classical. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Leiden Classical. BOINC Wiki. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Project list. BOINC Wiki. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 (2018-06-26).Leiden Classical - End of Operations notice. BOINC Message Boards. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Leiden Classical project details. The Scottish Boinc Team. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ Archived copy of Classical.txt. Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ Leiden Classical. BOINC Wiki (mundayweb mirror). Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 (2018-05-10).Leiden Project has ended. The Scottish Boinc Team. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ Leiden Classical. Comunitat catalana de càlcul distribuït. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ Leiden Classical. BOINC@AUSTRALIA Forum. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ Leiden Classical/Verbindung getrennt. Rechenkraft.net e.V.. Retrieved 2026-06-22.