Executed in 2010, see GSOC2010:Tcl state machine back-end module for XMLVM, transmuted into a bytecode assembler. See the Tcl 2010 Conference Proceedings for the paper coming out of this project.
SEH: Instead of a previous XMLVM-related suggestion, this project would make Tcl a target for XMLVM bytecode output. XMLVM takes bytecode input from Java, .NET and Ruby, refactors it into a common format and generates stack-based state machines in Java, javascript, .NET, Python, etc. that can run the bytecode. The goal of this project would be to write a pure-Tcl state machine compatible with XMLVM output, thus adding Tcl to the list of XMLVM output target platforms.
Benefits for the student: learn about bytecode technology, XML, XSLT, XQuery, XPath. Writing a stack-based state machine is an excellent exercise for any computer science student, good for understanding basics of computer processing.
Benefits for community: Tcl acquires ability to run code written in other languages natively, thus adding another dimension to Tcl's utility as "glue." Tcl programmers can choose from a wider range of already-written code libraries without having to worry about compilation or existence of other language interpreters on ones OS of choice.