Hi @josua_exomatter, @QXRL,
Thanks for bringing this up. This is a good opportunity for us to clarify what “MPComplete” is and the service that Materials Project provides.
To start with, “MPComplete” is not Materials Project offering calculations-as-a-service. While we have the technology and capability to do that, we do not have the funding, licensing or compute power available to run calculations on demand in the cloud.
Instead, MPComplete is essentially a service whereby people, as a gesture of goodwill, can suggest structures we might have missed – to help us complete our database – and then we make sure to credit whoever submitted the structure by name on the website to say thank you and because crediting this kind of contribution appropriately is important.
In this way, MPComplete acts as a suggestion service or a tip line. We run the structures that come in via MPComplete on an ad hoc basis. Currently I am, personally, running a few hundred structures that were backlogged, and hopefully these can make it into the next database release. However, in general, we are limited by the available time from group members for who can run these calculations. While parts of MPComplete are automated, there are still steps that are not automated and require manual labor.
For anyone who wants structures run in a more timely way or for specific use cases, please feel welcome to reach out to us to discuss potential collaborative work. We’ve definitely run calculations for collaborations previously, though it depends on the scope of the work and how it aligns with our current effort and workload.
I hope this helps clarify matters, and that the structures you submitted are available soon! We are really grateful for all the structures that people submit via MPComplete.
Best,
Matt