Ty is a co-owner and co-founder of Build Equinox, a company devoted to inventing technologies for healthy, comfortable and sustainable living. He retired from the University of Illinois in 2007 as an Assistant Dean in the College of Engineering, having advised 70 masters and doctoral graduate students, and is an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering. He has lectured around the world on indoor air quality, comfort, solar energy, building energy efficiency, and resource conservation including keynote addresses at the Solar Energy Society of India's 25th Silver Jubilee in Hyderabad and at the TTMD Conference (Turkish ASHRAE) in Istanbul, Turkey. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Nacional de Salta in Argentina, an Ercotaf Scholar (European Union) at the EPFL in Lausanne Switzerland, a United Nations Workshop Leader in Beijing China, an Academic Leader at the Tec de Monterrey Institute in Queretaro Mexico, and an advisor to the USAID NZEB project Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), El Salvador. Ty lives in a 100% solar powered home in Urbana Illinois that features automated fresh air control (CERV), two Electric Vehicles (Ford Focus EV and Ford C-Max Energi, also 100% solar energy powered), and is the first home within an Illinois municipality to be permitted for rainwater harvesting use. Build Equinox is located in a 4500sqft Morton building in Urbana IL that is also 100% solar powered.