diff --git a/cluster_setup/hpc_example.py b/cluster_setup/hpc_example.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d108110e080d2735b7538f07c37400bfe4696c9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cluster_setup/hpc_example.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+
+import sys, getopt, resource, time, platform
+
+def main(argv):
+   wait_time = 10
+   list_length = 0
+
+   ## handle the arguments
+   try:
+      opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv,"ht:l:",["time=","length="])
+   except getopt.GetoptError as err:
+      print str(err)
+      print 'python_example.py -t <wait time> -l <list length>'
+      sys.exit(2)
+   for opt, arg in opts:
+      if opt == '-h':
+         print 'python_example.py -t <wait time> -l <list length>'
+         sys.exit()
+      elif opt in ("-t", "--time"):
+         wait_time = max(10, float(arg) );
+      elif opt in ("-l", "--length"):
+         list_length = max(0, int(arg) )
+
+   print 'Current host is:', platform.node()
+   print 'Wait time is:', wait_time, 'seconds'
+   print 'List length is:', list_length
+
+   ## create a list of the required length
+   list = []
+   for i in range(0, list_length ):
+     list.append(1)
+
+   ## wait for the specified number of seconds
+   time.sleep( wait_time )
+
+   ## print the maximum memory usage to the screen
+   print 'Memory usage:', resource.getrusage(resource.RUSAGE_SELF).ru_maxrss / 1000.0, 'MB'
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+   main(sys.argv[1:])