diff --git a/egs/librispeech/ASR/pruned_transducer_stateless7/zipformer.py b/egs/librispeech/ASR/pruned_transducer_stateless7/zipformer.py
index 697904ca0..d37910b12 100644
--- a/egs/librispeech/ASR/pruned_transducer_stateless7/zipformer.py
+++ b/egs/librispeech/ASR/pruned_transducer_stateless7/zipformer.py
@@ -406,6 +406,7 @@ class ZipformerEncoderLayer(nn.Module):
             # to work correctly.
             layer_skip_rate: FloatLike = ScheduledFloat((0.0, 0.5), (4000.0, 0.05), default=0),
             attention_skip_rate: FloatLike = ScheduledFloat((0.0, 0.2), (4000.0, 0.05), (16000, 0.0), default=0),
+            small_conv_skip_rate: FloatLike = ScheduledFloat((0.0, 0.5), (4000.0, 0.2), (16000, 0.1), default=0),
             conv_skip_rate: FloatLike = ScheduledFloat((0.0, 0.2), (4000.0, 0.05), (16000, 0.0), default=0),
             const_attention_rate: FloatLike = ScheduledFloat((0.0, 0.25), (4000.0, 0.025), default=0),
             ff2_skip_rate: FloatLike = 0.01,
@@ -422,6 +423,11 @@ class ZipformerEncoderLayer(nn.Module):
         # an additional skip probability that applies to ConvModule to stop it from
         # contributing too much early on.
         self.conv_skip_rate = copy.deepcopy(conv_skip_rate)
+
+        # skip rate for small_conv_module; it is fairly high and remains nonzero
+        # because we don't want this submodule to contribute too much.
+        self.small_conv_skip_rate = copy.deepcopy(small_conv_skip_rate)
+
         # ff2_skip_rate is to prevent the ff2 module from having output that's too big
         # compared to its residual.
         self.ff2_skip_rate = copy.deepcopy(ff2_skip_rate)
@@ -452,6 +458,7 @@ class ZipformerEncoderLayer(nn.Module):
         self.nonlin_attention = NonlinAttention(embed_dim,
                                                 hidden_channels=embed_dim // 4)
 
+        self.small_conv_module = SmallConvolutionModule(embed_dim)
 
         self.conv_module = ConvolutionModule(embed_dim,
                                              cnn_module_kernel)
@@ -596,6 +603,10 @@ class ZipformerEncoderLayer(nn.Module):
             src = src + self.balancer_na(self.nonlin_attention(src,
                                                                selected_attn_weights[0:1]))
 
+
+        if torch.jit.is_scripting() or random.random() >=  float(self.small_conv_skip_rate):
+            src = src + self.small_conv_module(src, src_key_padding_mask=src_key_padding_mask)
+
         src = src + self.feed_forward1(src)
 
         # pooling module
@@ -937,6 +948,92 @@ class SimpleCombiner(torch.nn.Module):
 
 
 
+class SmallConvolutionModule(nn.Module):
+    """Part of Zipformer model: a small version of the Convolution module that uses a small kernel.
+    Inspired by convnext (i.e. have the depthwise conv first.)
+
+    Args:
+        channels (int): The number of channels of conv layers.
+        kernel_size (int): Kernerl size of conv layers.
+        bias (bool): Whether to use bias in conv layers (default=True).
+    """
+
+    def __init__(
+            self, channels: int,
+            hidden_dim: int = 128,
+            kernel_size: int = 5,
+    ) -> None:
+        super().__init__()
+
+
+        self.depthwise_conv = nn.Conv1d(
+            in_channels=channels,
+            out_channels=channels,
+            groups=channels,
+            kernel_size=kernel_size,
+            padding=kernel_size // 2)
+
+        self.pointwise_conv1 = nn.Conv1d(
+            channels,
+            hidden_dim,
+            kernel_size=1,
+            stride=1,
+            padding=0,
+            bias=True,
+        )
+        # balancer and activation as tuned for ConvolutionModule.
+
+        self.balancer = Balancer(
+            hidden_dim, channel_dim=1,
+            min_positive=ScheduledFloat((0.0, 0.1), (8000.0, 0.05)),
+            max_positive=1.0,
+            min_abs=ScheduledFloat((0.0, 0.2), (20000.0, 0.5)),
+            max_abs=10.0,
+        )
+
+        self.activation = SwooshR()
+
+        self.pointwise_conv2 = ScaledConv1d(
+            hidden_dim,
+            channels,
+            kernel_size=1,
+            stride=1,
+            padding=0,
+            bias=True,
+            initial_scale=0.05,
+         )
+
+    def forward(self,
+                x: Tensor,
+                src_key_padding_mask: Optional[Tensor] = None,
+    ) -> Tensor:
+        """Compute convolution module.
+
+        Args:
+            x: Input tensor (#time, batch, channels).
+           src_key_padding_mask: the mask for the src keys per batch (optional):
+               (batch, #time), contains bool in masked positions.
+
+        Returns:
+            Tensor: Output tensor (#time, batch, channels).
+        """
+        # exchange the temporal dimension and the feature dimension
+        x = x.permute(1, 2, 0)  # (#batch, channels, time).
+
+        if src_key_padding_mask is not None:
+            x = x.masked_fill(src_key_padding_mask.unsqueeze(1).expand_as(x), 0.0)
+
+        x = self.depthwise_conv(x)  # (batch, channels, time)
+        x = self.pointwise_conv1(x)  # (batch, hidden_dim, time)
+
+        x = self.balancer(x)
+        x = self.activation(x)
+        x = self.pointwise_conv2(x)
+
+        return x.permute(2, 0, 1)
+
+
+
 class CompactRelPositionalEncoding(torch.nn.Module):
     """
     Relative positional encoding module.  This version is "compact" meaning it is able to encode
@@ -1438,11 +1535,11 @@ class FeedforwardModule(nn.Module):
         self.in_proj = nn.Linear(embed_dim, feedforward_dim)
 
         self.hidden_balancer = Balancer(feedforward_dim,
-                                                  channel_dim=-1,
-                                                  min_positive=0.3,
-                                                  max_positive=1.0,
-                                                  min_abs=0.75,
-                                                  max_abs=5.0)
+                                        channel_dim=-1,
+                                        min_positive=0.3,
+                                        max_positive=1.0,
+                                        min_abs=0.75,
+                                        max_abs=5.0)
         self.activation = SwooshL()
         self.dropout = Dropout2(dropout)
         self.out_proj = ScaledLinear(feedforward_dim, embed_dim,