Karin Schmidlin

Karin Schmidlin, BA, MDM, is a Lecturer at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a research topic of artificial intelligence in education. She is also teaching user interface design at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, BC.

Karin earned her Master of Digital Media (MDM) at the Center for Digital Media Vancouver.

Expertise:
- User experience (UX)
- Customer experience design
- Artificial intelligence in education (AiED)
- Digital strategy

Academic positions:
2018-present, Lecturer, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, University of Waterloo
2021-present, Instructor, User Interface (UI) Design, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver
2012-2021, Lecturer, Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, University of Waterloo
2006-2012, Faculty, New Media and Web Development, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Industry experience:
2018-present, Design Lead and Co-founder, Carbon Labs
2016-present, UX Mentor, Design Lab
2012-2017, UX Design Lead and Manager, Jamii - the Virtual Incubator, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, University of Waterloo
2015, Lead Educator, UX, Brainstation Waterloo
2011-2013, Digital Strategist / Multimedia Manager, Allegra Print Web
2000-2008, Communications Coordinator, IATSE Local 891
1998-2000, Team Leader, UBS

• 2010, Master of Digital Media (MDM), Centre for Digital Media, Vancouver, Canada (University of British Columbia / Simon Fraser University / Emily Carr University of Art + Design / British Columbia Institute of Technology)
• 1989, Bachelor of Arts, Performing Arts, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland

• 2017 Excellence in Arts Teaching Award, Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo
• 2016 TEDxUW speaker

• BET 350 - Customer Experience Design
  • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• GBDA 210 - Introduction to User Experience Design
  • Taught in 2019, 2020

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Jamii: A Virtual Incubation Platform for Entrepreneurs presented at the annual Canadian Council of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE), Quebec City (2017).
• Virtual Learning for Entrepreneurs: A Conceptual Model, D. Sparkes, K. Schmidlin, M. Hsu, presented at the Education and Information Systems, Technology and Applications Conference (EISTA), Orlando, Florida (2016). Winner of the Session’s Best Paper Award.
• The Virtual Incubation Program: Empowering Virtual Entrepreneurship Education, K. Schmidlin, D. Sparkes, International Higher Education and Teaching Conference (HETL), Anchorage, Alaska (2014).