Colin O'flynn
Assistant Professor at NewAE Technology Inc.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolColin O'flynn is an assistant professor and co-founder with over 20 years’ experience specializing in embedded hardware security, open-source tooling, and productizing research. He created ChipWhisperer, the first open-source side-channel analysis toolchain, and co-founded NewAE Technology to commercialize it—selling thousands of units used in academia, industry, and government. His work blends hands-on firmware and hardware design (e.g., improving T-962 reflow oven controllers) with academic research and course-building in cybersecurity and embedded systems. Colin has a track record of translating PhD-era innovations into usable tools and companies while continuing to publish and teach. Based in Halifax, he combines practical consulting and startup experience with formal engineering training, and is known for making advanced attack techniques accessible through clear tutorials and purchasable hardware.
20 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Electrical Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Electrical Engineering at Dalhousie UniversityElectronics Technician Certificate, Electronics Technician Certificate at George Brown College
Github Skills (13)
c1710
firmware10
interrupt10
embedded10
interrupt-handling10
serial-communication10
c1110
sys10
watchers9
watchdog9
timer9
timers9
git3
Programming languages (12)
Github contributions (5)
UnifiedEngineering/T-962-improvements
Dec 2014 - Jun 2015
Improvements made to the cheap T-962 reflow oven utilizing the _existing_ controller HW
Role in this project:
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:9 commits, 1 PR, 8 comments in 6 months
Contributions summary:Colin primarily focused on improving the firmware for a T-962 reflow oven, likely utilizing the existing controller hardware. They fixed compiler warnings, added functionality to jump to the bootloader, and integrated interrupt-driven serial communication. Additional work included merging code, adjusting temperature profiles, and increasing the serial buffer size. Finally, the user modified the baud rate and added an interrupt-safe section around the watchdog feed.
controllercheapovenimprovementsreflow
newaetech/opentitan
Mar 2021 - Jul 2023
OpenTitan: Open source silicon root of trust
Contributions:76 pushes, 9 branches in 2 years 3 months
root-of-trustrootsilicontrust
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