Data Science practices are increasingly leveraged in disparate domains of research, whether as part of industry workflows, governmental department initiatives, or open problems within academic communities. Herein, we describe designing term-projects to introduce senior undergraduate students to applied Data Science research for industry, governmental, or academic "clients" through a series of course assignments and client meetings. We outline the lessons learned and describe how they may be adapted within similar courses. Students are familiarized with data science best practices, obtain applied research experience, and (potentially) professionally benefit from an actual research contribution in the form of a peer-reviewed conference publication; at time of writing, we have published three student-led projects in the proceedings of eminent peer-reviewed conferences. We highly recommend introducing undergraduate students to such client-serving research applications early in their program to encourage them to consider pursuing a research-focused career path.