Ricardo Mallol Poyato

Ricardo Mallol Poyato is an Associate Professor at the University of Alcalá, affiliated with the Department of Signal and Communication Theory within the College of Engineering. His research focuses on optimization algorithms applied to energy systems, particularly in microgrid design, renewable energy integration, and evolutionary computation. He leads the GHEODE research group (Modern Heuristics and Network Design Research Group), specializing in heuristic optimization for communication networks and energy systems.

He earned his doctorate from the University of Alcalá in 2016 with a thesis titled Optimización del diseño y la operación de redes eléctricas inteligentes mediante computación evolutiva, supervised by Dr. Sancho Salcedo Sanz and Dr. Pablo Díaz Villar. His work bridges theoretical algorithm development with practical applications in energy infrastructure and engineering education.

Key research interests include:

• Optimal design of microgrid topologies
• Renewable energy resource allocation
• Evolutionary algorithms for energy systems
• Thermal management of solar modules
• Computational methods for control systems

His publications emphasize innovative optimization techniques like coral reefs algorithms and harmony search, applied to battery scheduling, distributed generation placement, and scenario-based microgrid operation under variable pricing.

He has developed educational software tools for solar energy instruction and contributed to lightweight construction technologies using infrared heating systems.