In 2017, Colin O’Flynn completed a PhD in embedded cyber-security at Dalhousie University, and built an open-source project called ChipWhisperer based on his PhD work. This project led to founding a startup (NewAE Technology Inc.) which develops equipment and tools for performing security analysis of embedded systems. He is an assistant professor at Dalhousie University, and assists with the IDEA Hub incubator at Dalhousie.