Professor Huyang was a masculine-programmed architect droid who guided the Initiates of the Jedi Order in the construction of their lightsabers. Based aboard the Jedi training cruiser Crucible, Huyang began his service to the Order in its early days. His instruction would commence once a class of younglings had passed The Gathering on Ilum and collected their lightsaber crystals. Although criticized for being a droid despite his central role in Jedi training, he carried out his tasks with distinction, educating each new generation of Jedi and providing them with the needed components from his vast cache of supplies. He also maintained an archive of each and every lightsaber, and its owner, within his memory bank. By the time of the Clone Wars, thousands of generations of Jedi had passed through Huyang's tutelage and completed their lightsabers.
In 20 BBY, Huyang's instruction of one particular class of Initiates—Petro, Ganodi, Byph, Katooni, Zatt, and Gungi—took an unexpected turn when a gang of pirates attacked and boarded the Crucible. Although Huyang and his students repelled the brigands from the Crucible, the Initiates' chaperone, Padawan Ahsoka Tano, was captured. Huyang himself was almost completely dismembered in combat, though he received repairs thanks to Ganodi, Zatt, and the astromech droid R2-D2. While mounting an attempt to rescue Tano on the planet Florrum, Huyang and the younglings were drawn into an all-out invasion launched by General Grievous and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, though with the aid of Captain Hondo Ohnaka and his pirates, they evaded Grievous and safely returned to the Republic fleet.