Dr Sharon Lim Siok Lin
Director
BBL Academy
Dr Sharon Lim Siok Lin is the Director of BBL Academy (bblacademy.com), which is dedicated to empowering educators through Brain-Based Learning. The academy transforms teaching with neuroscience-informed strategies that honour how the brain naturally learns, helping educators design learning that is more engaging, more human and more effective.
Sharon is also the CEO of PPIC Technologies, a company of CoolRIOTS. PPIC Technologies helps companies develop, train and implement AI workflows and hybrid workforce models, where human employees are augmented by AI-powered Digital Employees. PPIC Technologies also provides training and develops curricula for both enterprises and educational institutions — including AI training grounded in Brain-Based Learning and brain-friendly technology curricula, most notably for the learning of AI itself.
Bringing together her work in technology and education, Sharon also helps companies and educational institutions develop their own AI solutions and build adaptive learning platforms. This leads her to study the effects of AI on learning, and to focus on tuning AI solutions to be pedagogically strong — so that technology deepens understanding and strengthens thinking, rather than replacing the human effort on which genuine learning depends.
Sharon holds an Honours Degree and Master’s Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, and a Doctorate in Computer Science from RMIT University. Earlier in her career, she contributed to Singapore’s satellite development and launch programmes, and was part of teams that received the Defence Technology Prize and the President’s Technology Award. She is also a recipient of the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
Keynote
Topic: Brain-Based Learning for a BANI World: Designing Adaptive, Human-Centred Learning in the Age of AI
As artificial intelligence reshapes how knowledge is accessed, generated and applied, educators are increasingly teaching in what many describe as a BANI world—one that is brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible. In such a context, the role of education can no longer be limited to content delivery or routine performance. Schools must instead design learning that enables students to remain engaged amid uncertainty, think deeply across complexity, adapt to change, and apply knowledge meaningfully to real-world problems.
This keynote argues that Brain-Based Learning (BBL) offers a powerful pedagogical foundation for such a world. Informed by insights from the Science of Learning and the broader Learning Sciences, BBL aligns teaching with how the brain naturally learns through attention, emotion, memory, meaning-making, patterning and social interaction. These principles are especially relevant in a BANI context, where learners require not only knowledge, but also resilience, cognitive flexibility, metacognition, creativity, collaboration and ethical judgment.
The keynote will examine how educators can design brain-compatible learning environments that combine psychological safety with intellectual challenge, while using AI as a tool to enrich inquiry, feedback, personalisation and reflection. Rather than competing with AI in information processing, learners must be prepared to question, direct and work wisely with it.
By linking brain-based learning to the demands of a BANI world, this keynote proposes a human-centred approach to education that prepares students not merely to cope with complexity, but to respond with adaptability, confidence, empathy and purpose.