She has broad research interests in design innovation, management practices and digital technologies. She is Deputy Director of Research in the School of Construction Management and Engineering, and a member of the EPSRC Innovative Construction Research Centre. Through the AIM 'Management Practices' Fellowship her personal research is focused on management practices in project-based design environments.
Prof Whyte is excited to be building inter-disciplinary research capacity in areas related to the AIM Fellowship through an exploration group with a vision of a new mode of design in the digital economy. Prof Whyte obtained £1.25m funding for this new group, the Design Innovation Research Centre, and it has been launched in January 2010 through the EPSRC 'Challenging Engineering' programme for future research leaders. The team includes 3 post-doctoral researchers and 4 PhD students, with 2 further studentships advertised. The focus of her wider team is on the use of BIM in practice on large projects, and on delivering value to clients and users of buildings by developing new processes and tools for connecting the design of buildings and infrastructure with their construction and operation.
This work builds on a track record of conducting research on the management of innovation and design. Prof Whyte has done detailed work on the role of visual practices in organizations and has developed indicators that have been used on over 1000 construction projects and now mandated for use in public procurement processes. She is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Information Systems Panel and a member of the management committee for the EPSRC funded Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments industrial doctorate centre. She is published in major international journals, including Organization Studies, Strategic Organization, Long Range Planning, Construction Management and Economics, Building Research and Information and Design Studies.
For more details see Prof Whyte's publication list: http://www.personal.reading.ac.uk/~kcs07jw/publications.htm
For more details of the team:
http://www.reading.ac.uk/designinnovation/
