About FROS

FIRST® Alumni & Robotics at Ohio State (FROS) is an active student organization focused on supporting FIRST teams and events locally and throughout the state of Ohio. Our mission is to gain recognition within our university as well as the Central Ohio region through mentorship, community service, and outreach on a local and national scale. Many of our members are alumni in FIRST programs, but we are open to any student, staff, or faculty member who is interested in FIRST.

Our student organization has been in existence since 1996 and has continued to grow in scale as we strengthen the relationship between the university’s College of Engineering and FIRST. The organization was originally known as “OSU FIRST” and initially began when a group of engineering students came together to help start FIRST Robotics Competition Team 128, based out of Grandview Heights High School. In the year 2000, OSU FIRST members worked to form FRC Team 677, based out of Columbus School for Girls. The Center for Automotive Research was able to graciously provide the all-girls team space to work at what is now the College of Engineering Student Projects Building, where all OSU Motorsports teams are located. In 2002, the student organization approached the Dublin City School District to form FRC Team 1014. Discussion of a potential community team between OSU FIRST and inspired parents led to the deveolpment of FRC Team 1317 in 2003. The student organization was rebranded “FIRST Robotics at OSU” in late 2014, and went through another rebrand in late 2019 to its current name. The student organization has seen a rapid increase in the amount of supported teams recently due to the interest in FIRST in the Columbus, Ohio area.