  Precise variational solutions are given for problems involving diverse
fermionic and bosonic $N=2-7$-body systems. The trial wave functions are chosen
to be combinations of correlated Gaussians, which are constructed from products
of the single-particle Gaussian wave packets through an integral
transformation, thereby facilitating fully analytical calculations of the
matrix elements. The nonlinear parameters of the trial function are chosen by a
stochastic technique. The method has proved very efficient, virtually exact,
and it seems feasible for any few-body bound-state problems emerging in nuclear
or atomic physics.
