Forward Edge-AI, Inc. developed Blaise®, a portable AI-powered Raman spectrometer. Blaise fits in a pocket, weighs less than a standard AA battery, and retails at under $800. The device delivers laboratory-grade molecular analysis anywhere in the field.

Traditional Raman spectrometers weigh tens of pounds and can cost up to $300,000. Blaise replaces that equipment with advanced optics and artificial intelligence. Users perform molecular analysis without specialized training.

Blaise identifies chemical or biological signatures in under six seconds. Accuracy exceeds 95 percent sensitivity and specificity. False positives measure below 3 percent.

Raman spectroscopy identifies materials by measuring how laser light interacts with molecules. A small portion of scattered light shifts in energy based on molecular vibrations. Detectors record the shift and produce a spectrum acting as a chemical fingerprint.

Artificial intelligence improves spectral analysis by comparing patterns against reference data. AI models identify unknown substances, monitor quality, and support faster field decisions.

See also Frequently Asked Questions.

The Blaise XTECH Competition is a global innovation challenge. Forward Edge-AI awards $1,000,000 USD in prizes to teams that develop the most innovative AI-powered mobile applications for the Blaise platform. All application ideas have an equal chance of winning prizes.

The Blaise XTECH Competition serves two primary and equally important purposes.

First: reward the development of breakthrough mobile applications that harness Blaise technology to solve real-world problems.

Second: acquire high-quality spectroscopic datasets. Forward Edge-AI uses those datasets to advance, generalize, and expand the Blaise artificial intelligence platform for current and future application development. Full transparency about the second purpose is provided here so every competitor can make an informed decision before registering.

A primary purpose of the Blaise XTECH Competition is to advance the Blaise artificial intelligence platform through the acquisition of high-quality, real-world spectroscopic datasets contributed by all participating teams. By participating, each team grants Forward Edge-AI, Inc. a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and unlimited license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, distribute, sub-license, and create derivative works from any data or datasets submitted in connection with the competition.

Teams retain full ownership of original code, AI models, and application designs. The unlimited data license to Forward Edge-AI is permanent, independent of license reversion, and survives termination of any other agreement. Full legal terms are set forth in Section 2.4 of the Licensing Agreement.

The data license applies to all Competition Data regardless of the round submitted, whether or not the team advances, whether or not the team wins, and whether or not the Licensed Application is ever released.

The competition is open to participants worldwide. Eligible applicants include:

Persons or entities in Restricted Jurisdictions, as defined in Section 2.5 of the Licensing Agreement, are not eligible to participate. International teams must comply with all export control laws and local regulations governing AI, spectroscopy, and healthcare applications.

Complete the following steps to register:

Step 1: Visit the Competition Website.

Step 2: Accept the Licensing Agreement on the registration portal.

Step 3: Complete the official pitch template form and a short video describing your concept.

A registration confirmation and further instructions are provided upon selection.

No registration fee applies for Phase I or Phase V.

The top 10 idea award winners receive a developer kit at no cost.

The remaining 90 selected teams pay a $500 USD fee per team, or $2,000 (late entry fee). The fee covers the developer kit and international shipping.

Solo registrations are accepted. Teams are strongly encouraged to include members with diverse technical and scientific expertise.

Team membership changes may be submitted for approval before the Semifinals round. Any modification requires approval by competition organizers.

By registering for the competition, all participants are automatically enrolled in the Blaise XTECH Competition newsletter. Forward Edge-AI uses MailChimp, a marketing automation platform, to manage competition communications. Forward Edge-AI does not share or sell mailing list data to any third party for any reason. The newsletter is used solely to notify competitors of competition milestones and new developments related to the Blaise product.

The Blaise XTECH Competition is structured into five phases. Phase I opens on August 1, 2026. Each phase builds on the previous one, moving from concept submission to live championship and public app store awards.

Phase I begins August 1, 2026. Teams submit a pitch and concept video.

Phase II begins after all 100 developer kits reach selected applicants. Forward Edge-AI expects shipping to finish approximately one month after Phase I ends.

All data submitted during Phase II is licensed to Forward Edge-AI on the unlimited, perpetual basis described in Section 2 and Section 2.4 of the Licensing Agreement.

Each developer kit includes:

SERS (Surface Enhanced Raman Substrate) chips improve signal detection by amplifying molecular signatures on nanoscale metallic structures. SERS chips are particularly useful for detecting low-concentration substances.

Registered teams may have access to the following support resources:

Innovators are encouraged to propose applications that push beyond established use cases. The competition welcomes ideas that reimagine what portable molecular sensing can accomplish.

Phase I submissions are evaluated on two equally weighted criteria: Innovation and Technological Advancement, and Market Viability and Commercialization Potential.

Teams are scored on six criteria during Phases II through IV:

Data quality carries the highest weight because spectroscopic datasets are a primary purpose of the competition, as disclosed in Section 2.

Objective scoring method for Phase III using real consumer pre-orders collected through the Blaise XTECH Competition pre-order portal.

Market Viability and Commercialization Potential will be measured using an objective method during Phase III. Forward Edge-AI, Inc. will operate a pre-order portal on the Blaise XTECH Competition website. Each competing team may publish a product listing on the portal and collect pre-orders from real consumers before their app is approved by Apple or Google. Pre-order volume at the close of Phase III determines a team’s score on the Market Viability criterion.

The pre-order portal is hosted by Forward Edge-AI, Inc. on the official Blaise XTECH Competition website. Each participating team may submit one product listing per competition entry. A listing may include a product video, solution description, screenshots, and any other promotional content the team chooses to provide.

Consumers who visit the portal may pre-order a listed product for a one-time fee of $2.99 USD per pre-order. The fee is allocated as follows:

Each team that publishes a portal listing will receive a unique promotion code generated by the portal. The team may distribute the promotion code on their own website, social media, or other channels. Consumers who use the promotion code after the app has been approved by Apple or Google will receive a discount on the final purchase price as specified in the portal at the time the code is generated.

Pre-order funds allocated to a competing team ($1.99 per pre-order) are held in escrow by Forward Edge-AI, Inc. until the conditions for release are met. Funds will be released to the team only after the team’s app has received formal approval and is available for download on the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, or both.

A team’s escrow balance will not be released if:

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. will notify each team of its escrow balance upon request. All escrow administration is subject to the terms of the Blaise XTECH Competition Licensing Agreement.

At the close of Phase III, Forward Edge-AI, Inc. will tally the total confirmed pre-orders recorded on the portal for each team. Pre-order points are awarded based on relative ranking among all Phase III competitors as follows:

Pre-order points are added to each team’s total Phase III score. A team that does not publish a portal listing, or that publishes a listing but receives no pre-orders, will receive zero pre-order points. Pre-order points do not replace or substitute for any other judging criterion. All other Phase III criteria are scored independently according to the judging rubric.

In the event of a tie in pre-order volume between two or more teams competing for the same rank, the tied teams will each receive the points assigned to the higher rank. The next lower rank will be skipped accordingly. For example, if two teams are tied for first place, both receive 15 points and no team receives 10 points for second place.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. reserves the right to audit pre-order activity on the portal. Pre-orders that appear to result from fraudulent activity, coordinated artificial inflation, or manipulation of consumer demand may be disqualified at the sole discretion of Forward Edge-AI, Inc. A team found to have engaged in pre-order fraud may be disqualified from the competition.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. is not responsible for a team’s ability to attract pre-orders or for any consumer’s failure to complete a pre-order. Portal availability is provided as a service to competitors and does not guarantee any minimum number of pre-orders or any particular outcome in the Market Viability scoring criterion.

Consumer pre-orders are non-binding on Forward Edge-AI, Inc. Forward Edge-AI, Inc. does not guarantee delivery of any competing team’s product and bears no liability to consumers who pre-order a product that is not ultimately delivered. All consumer disclosures related to pre-orders are the responsibility of the competing team.

Phase V winners are determined by verified user ratings and reviews in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, measured one year after Phase IV ends.

Forward Edge-AI's role during verification and validation is expressly limited to the following five areas:

A high-quality Graphical User Interface (GUI) prioritizes intuitive navigation, functional visual hierarchy, and seamless responsiveness to provide a frustration-free experience for all end users.

Competitors are solely responsible for all testing, verification, and validation of efficacy, accuracy, safety, and clinical performance beyond the five areas listed above. Forward Edge-AI does not certify, validate, or represent the clinical efficacy, diagnostic accuracy, scientific validity, or regulatory compliance of any Licensed Application. Verification by Forward Edge-AI confirms only the five criteria identified above and does not constitute any endorsement or certification of the application's performance in clinical, commercial, or regulatory contexts.

The ten most promising idea submissions each receive a five thousand dollar ($5,000) cash prize and a free developer kit. The total Idea Award pool is fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).

One year after competition winners are announced, Forward Edge-AI awards fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) to the highest-rated eligible application in each of the two major app stores. Eligibility extends to any team that submitted an idea or participated in the competition at any stage.

All prize-winning teams receive post-competition support including:

Winning and finalist teams automatically join the Blaise XTECH Alumni Network, a global community committed to advancing AI-powered Raman spectroscopy.

All entries must:

Never reverse engineer Blaise hardware or software. Violation results in immediate disqualification and may subject the team to legal action under the Licensing Agreement.

Unauthorized commercialization of applications during the competition period is not permitted outside the scope of required App Store submissions.

Submission of falsified, manipulated, or fraudulent Competition Data is a material breach of the Licensing Agreement and results in immediate disqualification.

Fraud, plagiarism, unsafe content, or false claims will result in disqualification. Forward Edge-AI reserves the sole right to make this determination. Violators will have no recourse.

All participants must follow competition rules, platform policies, and applicable laws. Teams must adhere to ethical AI practices and industry data privacy standards throughout all stages of the competition.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. reserves the sole right to cancel, suspend, postpone, or modify all or any part of the Blaise XTECH Competition at any time. The right to cancel rests exclusively with Forward Edge-AI, Inc. No competitor, judge, or sponsor can challenge or reverse a cancellation decision.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. may cancel or modify the competition for reasons including:

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. may cancel one or more phases of the competition without cancelling the competition entirely. Remaining phases continue under terms determined by Forward Edge-AI, Inc.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. will use reasonable efforts to notify registered competitors by email when a cancellation or suspension decision is made. Advance notice is not guaranteed and is not required for a cancellation decision to take effect.

When a phase or the full competition is cancelled:

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. has no liability to any competitor for losses, costs, or damages arising from a cancellation decision. By registering and participating, each competitor waives any claim against Forward Edge-AI, Inc. resulting from the exercise of the cancellation rights described in Section 10.

Each competitor bears all costs of participation. Forward Edge-AI, Inc. will not reimburse any expense.

Costs competitors are responsible for include:

A written reimbursement exception requires a separate signed instrument from an authorized officer of Forward Edge-AI, Inc. No verbal or informal agreement creates a reimbursement obligation. Reimbursement rights, if any, do not survive withdrawal, disqualification, or phase cancellation.

All participants who submit applications to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store must accept and comply with the current terms and conditions and developer agreements of each respective platform. Acceptance of the Licensing Agreement constitutes binding acknowledgment of all app store obligations.

Medically related applications must additionally comply with the health and medical app-specific requirements of both platforms.

Key SDK and technology use restrictions include:

Each participating team is solely responsible for identifying, funding, and obtaining all approvals from government regulatory agencies, licensing authorities, and certification bodies applicable to the development, testing, and commercial distribution of the Licensed Application. All regulatory costs are entirely the team's obligation.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. bears no responsibility for regulatory costs, delays, or outcomes of any kind. Entering the competition and executing the Licensing Agreement constitutes each team's binding acknowledgment of sole responsibility for all regulatory costs, compliance obligations, and approval processes. Full legal terms are set forth in Sections 9.5 and 9.6 of the Licensing Agreement.

A key purpose of the competition is commercialization of the technology. Final products must be distributed through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Competitors are solely responsible for complying with store policies and for submitting and obtaining approval of the software application.

Each team is solely responsible for identifying and obtaining all approvals from government regulatory agencies, licensing authorities, and certification bodies applicable to the development, testing, and commercial distribution of the application. All associated costs are entirely the team's obligation.

Any team developing a medically related application, including applications intended for clinical use, diagnostic support, patient monitoring, or medical device integration, bears full responsibility for obtaining all required medical device approvals and regulatory clearances.

Required approvals may include:

All such costs are the sole responsibility of the competing team. Forward Edge-AI does not fund, facilitate, or assist in obtaining regulatory approvals.

Applicants retain ownership of original intellectual property, including code, AI models, and application designs. Licensing terms grant Forward Edge-AI limited rights needed for judging, testing, promotion, and competition operations.

Applicants may use existing technology if legal ownership and licensing rights remain clear. All submissions must comply with intellectual property laws and third-party license requirements. However, to be eligible, the product or concept must operate on the Blaise Raman Spectrometer and be compatible with its Raman Spectra format without conversion.

By registering and participating, all teams grant Forward Edge-AI, Inc. a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and unlimited license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, distribute, sub-license, and create derivative works from any data, datasets, spectral measurements, training data, or validation data submitted in connection with the competition. Ownership of original code, AI models, and application designs remains with the submitting team.

Following public release to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, a licensed application must generate a minimum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) in annual gross revenue during each twelve-month measurement period.

When an application fails to meet the revenue threshold, the license reverts to Forward Edge-AI, Inc. after a ninety-day cure period. The purpose of the restriction is to prevent speculators from purchasing licenses from award winners in order to restrict competition.

Full details are provided in Section 9 of the Licensing Agreement.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. may use any materials submitted by a competitor in connection with the Blaise XTECH Competition for marketing and promotional purposes related to the Blaise platform and the competition. The right takes effect automatically at the moment of submission and does not require any additional approval, consent, or action by the competitor.

Submitted materials covered by the promotional license include, but are not limited to:

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. may rebroadcast, repost, stream, share, edit, clip, and distribute submitted materials across all Blaise XTECH Competition social media channels and in any marketing or advertising context. No prior approval, edit request, or notification to the competitor is required before Forward Edge-AI exercises the foregoing rights.

Attribution to the submitting team may be provided at Forward Edge-AI's discretion. Omission of attribution is not a breach of any obligation to the competitor.

The promotional license is perpetual and survives the conclusion of the competition and the termination of the Licensing Agreement. Forward Edge-AI, Inc. retains full promotional rights in all materials submitted prior to a competitor's voluntary withdrawal, abandonment, or disqualification.

The license granted under the Blaise XTECH Competition Licensing Agreement reverts automatically and immediately to Forward Edge-AI, Inc. upon the occurrence of any of the following three events:

License reversion is automatic and requires no additional action by either party. All commercialization rights, including the right to distribute, modify, sub-license, and monetize the Licensed Application, transfer exclusively to Forward Edge-AI, Inc.

Forward Edge-AI's determination of disqualification is final and binding. Disqualified competitors have no recourse against the determination.

Forward Edge-AI's unlimited data license under Section 2.4 of the Licensing Agreement is independent of and entirely unaffected by license reversion.

Spectroscopic data submitted prior to withdrawal, abandonment, or disqualification remains licensed to Forward Edge-AI, Inc. on a perpetual, irrevocable, and unlimited basis regardless of the circumstances of a competitor's exit.

Forward Edge-AI, Inc. is actively developing its own applications for the Blaise platform. Forward Edge-AI discloses this fact transparently so all competitors are fully informed before submitting ideas or accepting the Licensing Agreement.

Forward Edge-AI operates its internal Blaise development team under strict structural isolation from all competition activities to prevent any possibility of IP leakage.

REPORTING A SUSPECTED BREACH:

Competitors who believe a breach of the isolation procedures has occurred may raise a concern to [email protected]. Forward Edge-AI will acknowledge receipt within five business days and will investigate all good-faith reports promptly.

Teams developing applications that interact with Blaise hardware must ensure their solutions adhere to applicable health and safety regulations when handling biological samples, chemical substances, or fuel testing procedures.

Failure to comply with safety guidelines may result in disqualification.

The Phase IV Judging Panel is independent and not affiliated with Forward Edge-AI.

For intellectual property concerns or suspected isolation breaches, contact: [email protected].