Short answers, pulled from the story.
Alexey Ivakhnenko was a Soviet and Ukrainian mathematician born on the 30th of March 1913. He developed the group method of data handling, a multilayered inductive learning procedure whose architecture is considered a forerunner of modern deep learning networks, earning him recognition as one of the founders of the field.
The group method of data handling is an inductive statistical learning approach that automatically generates candidate models from data, then selects the optimal model using external criteria applied to divided data subsets. It minimises human influence on model construction and adapts model complexity to the level of uncertainty in the data.
In 1968, the journal Avtomatika published his article "Group Method of Data Handling -- a rival of the method of stochastic approximation," which marked the formal beginning of a new stage in his scientific work.
More than 220 scientists defended their Ph.D. dissertations under Ivakhnenko's direct leadership at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the Institute of Cybernetics. Nearly 30 of those students went on to complete post-doctoral dissertations and several founded their own scientific schools.
Ivakhnenko was named Honorary Scientist of the USSR in 1972 and won the State Prize twice, in 1991 and 1997. He was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1961 and became a full Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2003.
Ivakhnenko was born on the 30th of March 1913 in Kobelyaky, Poltava Governorate. He died on the 16th of October 2007.