I did the high school summer computing institute at the U in the early 2000s. The first part of it was working with C shape edit and doing graphics with alpha_1 and a bunch of other fun things, the second part was building a rover in Lisp.

Alpha_1 has a direct lineage from the development of the teapot and was the basis of Featurecam

I was at the same event. I got to hold it. It was a bit of a thrill.

I love the association of University of Utah -> Utah teapot -> 3D computer graphics.

Incidentally, I've been following the incredible Interactive Graphics course on YouTube by Cem Yuksel (mentioned in TFA for his improved teapot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVCuWQV_-Es&list=PLplnkTzzqs...