| Summary: | Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2012. === This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. === Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references. === MIT has a vibrant culture of innovation and a rich history of entrepreneurship. Over the years, many organizations, programs, centers, courses, and competitions have been created to kindle, foster, and celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit on-campus. Together, these form the MIT entrepreneurial ecosystem. Despite the wealth of these resources, more than half of graduating seniors say that they are not prepared to start a company. This thesis seeks to understand this phenomenon by investigating the undergraduate student body's awareness of various parts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem through a survey questionnaire. Lack of visibility of these resources is hypothesized and then proven. It was found that students who are not interested in entrepreneurship have not heard about any resource other than the $100K Competition. It was also found that the majority of students who are interested did not know about many of the resources that their peers have found the most helpful. Based on survey data, three groups (the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Founder's Journey, and the MIT $100K Competition) were chosen for an in-depth study because they have done an exceptional job raising awareness for themselves, allowing them to provide tremendous value for their students. Longer interviews were conducted with a representative from each of these groups. Shorter interviews, often by email, were also conducted with 25+ students to learn about what resources were most valuable to them and how they found them. It was found that these programs reached out to the student body in two major ways: emails to large mailing lists and word of mouth. Using emails sent to the majority of the student body, the$100K was able to gain tremendous visibility to undergraduate students, unrivaled by any other groups. On the other hand, the Trust Center does not use mass emails, relying instead on word-of-mouth recommendations from the students who are already familiar with the Center. This highly targeted advertising gives it the highest utilization rate (percentage of students who know about it who also use it) of all the parts of the ecosystem. Founder's Journey uses both of these methods, though most of its students enroll because of a word-of-mouth recommendation. === by Kuan Cheng. === S.B.
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