The ultimate aim of coding education was never just to teach coding, but to develop core competencies and inspire a passion for lifelong learning, said a company executive on Monday.

Zeng Pengxuan, founder and CEO of Chinese edtech company Walnut Coding, said that practical operations are the best way to stimulate young people's self-motivation in learning, especially with the coming of the artificial intelligence era.

"Only through practical practice can the young generation be full of curiosity about science, unlimited creativity and independent thinking ability," he said.

To stimulate such abilities, Walnut Coding launched, on Monday, its independent intelligent hardware development product set.

Dubbed as AlphaPi, the platform was integrated with both hardware and software and enable users to program and then turn it into real applications, such as autonomous driving and face recognition systems.

AlphaPi is not a motor or a sensor, but the computing brain of the real world and an object for users to write programs, the company said.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn