# MSc Thesis — QK-Norm at Small Scale

**Working title:** When Does a Small Language Model Need QK-Norm? An Isolated
Learning-Rate Characterization of Query–Key Normalization at <100M Parameters

Organised copy of the project, made 28/10/2026. Everything here is a **copy** — the
originals are still in the parent folder, and the CS6513 git repo
(`../Research Project/`, github.com/NikScorch/MSc_Research_Project) is untouched.
This folder is not a git repo yet.

## Layout

| Folder | What's in it |
|---|---|
| `00-supervisor/` | Supervisor meeting notes and to-dos |
| `01-proposal/` | CS6513 proposal pitch: Marp slides (`pitch-slides.md`), script, exported PDF, recorded video |
| `02-literature/` | `qknorm-research-findings.md` — prior-art scan and novelty verdict (24/07/2026) |
| `03-cs6513-paper/` | CS6513 Introduction + Lit Review paper (IEEE format), see below |
| `04-cs6513-notebook/` | CS6513 research notebook (`.rmd` source + exported PDF) |
| `05-course-materials/` | CS6513 lecture slides and set readings (wk1 methods, wk2 lit review incl. Xiao 2017 SLR guidance) |

### `03-cs6513-paper/` — which file is which

| File | Status |
|---|---|
| `draft.md` → `draft.tex` / `draft.pdf` | **The submitted paper.** Cormac's own prose; `.tex` is a format conversion of the `.md` |
| `main.tex` / `main.pdf` | Earlier bullet-point scaffold (AI-assisted outline, not submitted) |
| `ref_draft.tex` / `ref_draft.pdf` | Personal AI-assisted reference draft — never for submission; kept out of the git repo |
| `build.sh`, `IEEEtran.cls`, `README.md` | Build tooling: `./build.sh draft` |

## Not copied

- `../Research Project/msc-research-notebook-outline.md` — byte-identical duplicate of the `.rmd`
- `.obsidian/`, `.DS_Store`, `.git/` — editor/system/VCS metadata