BU Students Showcase Real-World Data Projects at Spark! Demo Day
From a font-design tool to a dashboard tracking federal grant cuts, undergrads demonstrate that data science is as much about people as it is about code
The Percent team Melih Yilmaz (CAS’28) (from left), Margarita Gomez-Puche (CFA’27), Yue Zhou (CFA’27), and Alara Kalfazade (CFA’27) won the Innovation Award for creating a font-creation tool called Percent. The web-based platform was made for students and beginners who wish to design their own fonts from scratch and are frustrated with complex or expensive software.
BU Students Showcase Real-World Data Projects at Spark! Demo Day
From a font-design tool to a dashboard tracking federal grant cuts, undergrads demonstrate that data science is as much about people as it is about code
This article was originally published in BU Today on May 7, 2026. By Camille Bugayong (COM’27)
EXCERPT
At the recent BU Spark! Demo Day, students showcased their semester-long data projects, exhibiting not just their technical chops, but also their confidence, professionalism, and presentation skills.
Demo Day highlights unique CDS Duan Family Spark! Initiative data science and computing projects, dreamt up by ambitious students or initiated through partnerships with external clients. With student posters and presentations, and food and more, the event, held in the Duan Family Center for Computing & Data Sciences, drew a range of attendees, from students and professors to industry and civil society partners.
The event is part of the larger Experiential Learning Expo, which also featured student projects from the Learning Assistant Program and the Cross-College Challenge (XCC).
Alara Kalfazade (CFA’27), Margarita Gomez-Puche (CFA’27), Melih Yilmaz (CAS’28) and Yue Zhou (CFA’27) won the Innovation Award for creating a font-creation tool called Percent. The web-based platform was made for students and beginners who wish to design their own fonts from scratch and are frustrated with complex or expensive software.
The idea came from the team’s struggle in a type-design class, where they found the existing tools difficult to use. “We began experimenting with simplifying letterforms into basic shapes, and learned the letterform anatomy with circles,” Kalfazade says. “Then we got the idea that resizing circles could be a way to create typefaces” in a browser-based tool, accessible by anyone.
Gomez-Puche says the group wanted to give non-designers a way into typography without the steep learning curve or cost of traditional software. “Percent is meant for anyone who has ever wanted to play with type, but doesn’t have that design background,” she says.
According to postbaccalaureate fellow Nolan Thompson (CFA’24, COM’24, MET’26), the event doubles as a networking hub for BU’s STEM community and industry partners. “It’s the first taste of the industry,” Thompson says. “Clients come [to meet] a lot of really amazing companies and organizations.”