Overview
Background
Stephany Berrio is a robotics researcher specialising in perception, mapping, and safety for autonomous vehicles, working at the intersection of machine learning and real-world deployment. Her research helps self-driving systems understand complex, changing urban environments and operate safely alongside people. Her current focus areas include:
- Multimodal perception and sensor fusion — developing algorithms that fuse camera, LiDAR, and radar data for robust scene understanding, semantic occupancy prediction, HD mapping, domain adaptation, and anomaly detection in intelligent transportation systems.
- Long-term mapping and localisation — enabling vehicles to maintain accurate position estimates as cities change over time.
- Open datasets and benchmarks — building publicly available multimodal datasets for anomaly segmentation, V2X collaboration, and driving in challenging conditions such as rain and rural roads.
Stephany completed her PhD at the University of Sydney's Australian Centre for Field Robotics on scene understanding and map maintenance for autonomous vehicles.
Availability
- Dr Stephany Berrio Perez is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Research impacts
Stephany's research moves autonomous vehicle technology out of the lab and onto real roads — shaping government policy, supporting industry, and making driving safer. Stephanycontributed to the Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) trials led by the Australian Centre for Robotics and supported by Transport for NSW (running since 2020). These on-road trials in complex urban settings generated evidence used to inform future government policy on how automated vehicles can be safely integrated into the road network.
Open resources for a global research community. She co-created several publicly available datasets and benchmarks that lower the barrier for safety research worldwide, including:
- STU (Spotting the Unexpected) — the first public 3D LiDAR dataset for road anomaly segmentation (CVPR 2025), helping researchers test how vehicles detect unexpected hazards
- Mixed Signals — a diverse point cloud dataset for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) collaboration (ICCV 2025), developed with international partners including Cornell University
- Panoptic-CUDAL — a rural Australian dataset captured in rainy conditions (ITSC 2025), addressing the under-studied challenge of driving beyond cities.
Together, these activities support safer roads, stronger local capability in a globally competitive industry, and evidence-based regulation of a technology that will reshape everyday transport.
Works
Search Professor Stephany Berrio Perez’s works on UQ eSpace
2026
Journal Article
What demands attention in urban street scenes? From scene understanding towards road safety: A survey of vision-driven datasets and studies
Huang, Yaoqi, Berrio, Julie Stephany, Shan, Mao and Worrall, Stewart (2026). What demands attention in urban street scenes? From scene understanding towards road safety: A survey of vision-driven datasets and studies. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 181 115230, 115230-115230. doi: 10.1016/j.engappai.2026.115230
2026
Journal Article
The Era of End-to-End Autonomy: Transitioning from Rule-Based Driving to Large Driving Models
Nebot, Em. Eduardo and Berrio Perez, Julie Stephany (2026). The Era of End-to-End Autonomy: Transitioning from Rule-Based Driving to Large Driving Models. Electronics, 15 (14), 3160. doi: 10.3390/electronics15143160
2026
Conference Publication
Been There, Scanned That: Nostalgia-Driven Point Cloud Compression for Self-Driving Cars
Khalid, Ali, Mobin, Jaiaid, Appala, Sumanth Rao, Maurya, Avinash, Perez, Stephany Berrio, Rafique, M. Mustafa and Ahmad, Fawad (2026). Been There, Scanned That: Nostalgia-Driven Point Cloud Compression for Self-Driving Cars. New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3774906.3800467
2026
Journal Article
ITSS Young Professionals and Women in Engineering Highlights of 2025: A Year of Growth and Community Impact [Its Connections]
Elias, Catherine, Theocharides, Kyriacos and Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio (2026). ITSS Young Professionals and Women in Engineering Highlights of 2025: A Year of Growth and Community Impact [Its Connections]. IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 18 (2), 123-126. doi: 10.1109/mits.2025.3643667
2025
Journal Article
Endangered Alert: A Field-Validated Self-Training Scheme for Detecting and Protecting Threatened Wildlife on Roads and Roadsides
Li, Kunming, Shan, Mao, Perez, Stephany Berrio, Luo, Katie and Worrall, Stewart (2025). Endangered Alert: A Field-Validated Self-Training Scheme for Detecting and Protecting Threatened Wildlife on Roads and Roadsides. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10 (10), 10706-10713. doi: 10.1109/lra.2025.3604697
2025
Journal Article
Intelligent transportation systems [Editorial]
Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio, Lau, Bee Theng and Fauzi, Mohammad Faizal Ahmad (2025). Intelligent transportation systems [Editorial]. IEEE Potentials, 44 (5), 3-4. doi: 10.1109/mpot.2026.3668062
2025
Journal Article
Women in Robotics: Insights Into the First International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in the Middle East [Women in Engineering]
Ashour, Reem, Aldhaheri, Sara, Perez, J. Stephany Berrio and De Masi, Giulia (2025). Women in Robotics: Insights Into the First International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in the Middle East [Women in Engineering]. Ieee Robotics & Automation Magazine, 32 (3), 205-209. doi: 10.1109/MRA.2025.3587857
2025
Journal Article
OccFusion: Multi-Sensor Fusion Framework for 3D Semantic Occupancy Prediction
Ming, Zhenxing, Stephany Berrio, Julie, Shan, Mao and Worrall, Stewart (2025). OccFusion: Multi-Sensor Fusion Framework for 3D Semantic Occupancy Prediction. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, 10 (5), 3421-3433. doi: 10.1109/tiv.2024.3453293
2025
Journal Article
MS3D++: Ensemble of Experts for Multi-Source Unsupervised Domain Adaptation in 3D Object Detection
Tsai, Darren, Berrio, Julie Stephany, Shan, Mao, Nebot, Eduardo and Worrall, Stewart (2025). MS3D++: Ensemble of Experts for Multi-Source Unsupervised Domain Adaptation in 3D Object Detection. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, 10 (3), 1999-2014. doi: 10.1109/tiv.2024.3441527
2025
Journal Article
Online High-Definition Map Construction for Autonomous Vehicles: A Comprehensive Survey
Lyu, Hongyu, Berrio Perez, Julie Stephany, Huang, Yaoqi, Li, Kunming, Shan, Mao and Worrall, Stewart (2025). Online High-Definition Map Construction for Autonomous Vehicles: A Comprehensive Survey. Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, 14 (1) 15, 15. doi: 10.3390/jsan14010015
2025
Journal Article
Inverse plus plus : Vision-centric 3D semantic occupancy prediction assisted with 3D object detection
Ming, Zhenxing, Berrio-Perez, Julie Stephany, Shan, Mao and Worrall, Stewart (2025). Inverse plus plus : Vision-centric 3D semantic occupancy prediction assisted with 3D object detection. Neurocomputing, 666 132162, 132162. doi: 10.1016/j.neucom.2025.132162
2025
Conference Publication
Spotting the Unexpected (STU): A 3D LiDAR Dataset for Anomaly Segmentation in Autonomous Driving
Nekrasov, Alexey, Burdorf, Malcolm, Worrall, Stewart, Leibe, Bastian and Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio (2025). Spotting the Unexpected (STU): A 3D LiDAR Dataset for Anomaly Segmentation in Autonomous Driving. 2025 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition-CVPR-Annual, Nashville Tn, Jun 10-17, 2025. LOS ALAMITOS: IEEE COMPUTER SOC. doi: 10.1109/CVPR52734.2025.01109
2025
Conference Publication
Animal Interaction with Autonomous Mobility Systems: Designing for Multi-Species Coexistence
Tram Thi Minh Tran, , Yu, Xinyan, Hoggenmueller, Marius, Parker, Callum, Schmitt, Paul, Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio, Worrall, Stewart and Tomitsch, Martin (2025). Animal Interaction with Autonomous Mobility Systems: Designing for Multi-Species Coexistence. 17th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications-AUTOMOTIVEUI, Brisbane Australia, Sep 22-25, 2025. NEW YORK: ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. doi: 10.1145/3744333.3747834
2025
Conference Publication
The UnScripted Trip: Fostering Policy Discussion on Future Human-Vehicle Collaboration in Autonomous Driving Through Design-Oriented Methods
Yu, Xinyan, Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio, Hoggenmuller, Marius, Tomitsch, Martin, Tran, Tram Thi Minh, Worrall, Stewart and Ju, Wendy (2025). The UnScripted Trip: Fostering Policy Discussion on Future Human-Vehicle Collaboration in Autonomous Driving Through Design-Oriented Methods. 17th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications-AUTOMOTIVEUI, Brisbane Australia, Sep 22-25, 2025. NEW YORK: ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. doi: 10.1145/3744335.3749144
2025
Conference Publication
Towards Adaptive External Communication in Autonomous Vehicles: A Conceptual Design Framework
Tran, Tram Thi Minh, Kay, Judy, Worrall, Stewart, Hoggenmueller, Marius, Parker, Callum, Yu, Xinyan, Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio, Shan, Mao and Tomitsch, Martin (2025). Towards Adaptive External Communication in Autonomous Vehicles: A Conceptual Design Framework. 17th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications-AUTOMOTIVEUI, Brisbane Australia, Sep 22-25, 2025. NEW YORK: ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. doi: 10.1145/3744335.3758494
2025
Conference Publication
Understanding Pedestrian Gesture Misrecognition: Insights from Vision-Language Model Reasoning
Tran, Tram Thi Minh, Yu, Xinyan, Parker, Callum, Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio, Worrall, Stewart and Tomitsch, Martin (2025). Understanding Pedestrian Gesture Misrecognition: Insights from Vision-Language Model Reasoning. 17th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications-AUTOMOTIVEUI, Brisbane Australia, Sep 22-25, 2025. NEW YORK: ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. doi: 10.1145/3744335.3758495
2024
Journal Article
Navigating the Future: Empowering Young Professionals in ITS [ITS Diversity]
Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio (2024). Navigating the Future: Empowering Young Professionals in ITS [ITS Diversity]. Ieee Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 16 (4), 100-100. doi: 10.1109/MITS.2024.3401539
2024
Journal Article
Empowering the Next Wave of Robotics Innovators: Introducing the New RAS Young Professionals Committee
Perez, Julie Stephany Berrio, Malis, Ezio and Maurelli, Francesco (2024). Empowering the Next Wave of Robotics Innovators: Introducing the New RAS Young Professionals Committee. Ieee Robotics & Automation Magazine, 31 (2), 149-150. doi: 10.1109/MRA.2024.3388279
2024
Journal Article
Practical Collaborative Perception: A Framework for Asynchronous and Multi-Agent 3D Object Detection
Dao, Minh-Quan, Berrio, Julie Stephany, Fremont, Vincent, Shan, Mao, Hery, Elwan and Worrall, Stewart (2024). Practical Collaborative Perception: A Framework for Asynchronous and Multi-Agent 3D Object Detection. Ieee Transactions On Intelligent Transportation Systems, 25 (9), 12163-12175. doi: 10.1109/TITS.2024.3371177
2024
Conference Publication
InverseMatrixVT3D: An Efficient Projection Matrix-Based Approach for 3D Occupancy Prediction
Ming, Zhenxing, Berrio, Julie Stephany, Shan, Mao and Worrall, Stewart (2024). InverseMatrixVT3D: An Efficient Projection Matrix-Based Approach for 3D Occupancy Prediction. 2024 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Abu Dhabi U Arab Emirates, Oct 14-18, 2024. NEW YORK: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/IROS58592.2024.10802434
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Stephany Berrio Perez is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Media
Enquiries
For media enquiries about Dr Stephany Berrio Perez's areas of expertise, story ideas and help finding experts, contact our Media team: