Some various papers, slides, books, and other places to look to get you excited about side channel analysis...
* The book [http://www.amazon.com/Power-Analysis-Attacks-Revealing-Secrets/dp/1441940391/n0fa0-20 Power Analysis Attacks], which is a great overview of the math involved and provides tons of examples of attacks
* The book [http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Cryptography-Textbook-Practitioners-ebook/dp/B00475ARKM/n0fa0-20 Understanding Cryptography] for an introduction to cryptography algorthms