Alumni Spotlight: Ty’Quish Keyes ’11

Whether building his basement or the Army’s next-generation helicopter, an engineer relishes the chance to use his expertise

Ty’Quish Keyes is a Boeing engineer on the team for DEFIANT, the helicopter proposed for the U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program. He has spent years planning, designing, building, and troubleshooting this revolutionary new aircraft that incorporates two-counter-rotating blades on top of each other. It flew for the first time in 2019, and “facilitates the maneuverability and agility of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing airplane.”

Keyes, Class of 2011, is also one of SCH’s first engineering students after the department started to offer classes in 2005, and a three-sport athlete—football, basketball, and lacrosse! After graduating from CHA, he attended Morehouse College and Columbia University, earning a dual degree in physics and mechanical engineering.

His profile was recently featured on the BOEING Defense website, "Solving problems at home and at work" (August 25, 2022). The article calls out the problem-solving mindset Keyes applies to both DIY home improvement projects and his work at Boeing. Keyes acknowledges that this critical mindset was first acquired while building with LEGO and cars as a kid. He refers to Peter Randall, department chair of engineering and robotics, in the article. “On the first day of an intro to engineering class, the professor explained that engineers are problem solvers, that they use math and science to solve the world’s problems. That's when a light bulb went off,” he said.

Randall estimates that there are now over 500 SCH graduates out in the world lighting up the workforce with the experiences they first had in our engineering and robotics program.

As the robotics season and SCH after-school programs gear up this year, just think… you/your student could be the next Boeing feature story, designing aircraft for the United States military!

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