Professor Patricia Arroba, a researcher at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), is undertaking a research stay at The University of Melbourne (Australia) from September to December 2026, supported by a José Castillejo grant for the international mobility of teaching and research staff.

During her stay, she is joining the CLOUDS Lab (Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems Laboratory), an internationally recognised research group working in areas such as distributed computing, cloud computing, edge computing and the sustainability of digital infrastructures. The collaboration is being carried out with Professor Rajkumar Buyya, director of the laboratory and a leading researcher in these fields.

Towards more sustainable digital infrastructures

The work carried out during the research stay addresses one of the major challenges associated with the growing digitalisation of society: ensuring that the infrastructures supporting new digital applications become increasingly efficient and sustainable.

In collaboration with researchers at The University of Melbourne, the research focuses on developing new strategies to improve the sustainability of digital infrastructures supporting applications in the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and edge computing.

Advanced modelling, simulation and optimisation techniques are being used to assess and improve aspects such as energy efficiency, environmental impact and the operating costs of these distributed systems.

Connecting with the WATER-SUSTAIN project

The work carried out during the stay is closely linked to the WATER-SUSTAIN project, led by UPM and focused on the development of sustainable digital infrastructures for the monitoring and early warning of biocontaminants in freshwater bodies.

The knowledge, methodologies and tools developed through the collaboration with the CLOUDS Lab will contribute to strengthening the project’s research activities, particularly in the development of new modelling, simulation and optimisation solutions for distributed systems subject to energy and environmental constraints.

An international collaboration opening up new opportunities

Beyond the scientific outcomes of the research stay, the collaboration contributes to strengthening ties between UPM and The University of Melbourne, promoting knowledge exchange and creating new opportunities for joint research.

The experience will also provide an opportunity to explore future areas of collaboration between researchers at both institutions, including scientific publications, international projects and cooperation initiatives focused on sustainable digital infrastructures.

The José Castillejo grants, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, aim to promote the international training and specialisation of teaching and research staff through research stays at leading institutions abroad. These grants contribute to the internationalisation of Spanish research and to the development of scientific collaboration networks with internationally recognised institutions.

The research stay at The University of Melbourne has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through a José Castillejo grant for early-career researchers (CAS24/00117).

This publication is part of the R&D&I Project PID2024-156033OA-C33 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF/EU”.