diff --git a/unittest/eigen_ref.cpp b/unittest/eigen_ref.cpp
index 1e58cfee4c7760169a605a79f3547b4a43369081..267f4a00666aed7082c38b1ebf334efae66f2113 100644
--- a/unittest/eigen_ref.cpp
+++ b/unittest/eigen_ref.cpp
@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@ void fill(Eigen::Ref<MatType> mat, const typename MatType::Scalar & value)
   mat.fill(value);
 }
 
+template<typename MatType>
+Eigen::Ref<MatType> asRef(const int rows, const int cols)
+{
+  static MatType mat(rows,cols);
+  std::cout << "mat:\n" << mat << std::endl;
+  return mat;
+}
+
 BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(eigen_ref)
 {
   namespace bp = boost::python;
@@ -56,4 +64,6 @@ BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(eigen_ref)
   bp::def("fillVec3", fill<Vector3d>);
   bp::def("fillVec", fill<VectorXd>);
   bp::def("fill", fill<MatrixXd>);
+  
+  bp::def("asRef", asRef<MatrixXd>);
 }
diff --git a/unittest/python/test_eigen_ref.py b/unittest/python/test_eigen_ref.py
index fe8cd29e386162e52b5292681d6611f228532524..76721a3f2bb6080b0e7f3a9df1a0f8965f3a33d1 100644
--- a/unittest/python/test_eigen_ref.py
+++ b/unittest/python/test_eigen_ref.py
@@ -8,6 +8,16 @@ def test(mat):
   printMatrix(mat)
   assert np.array_equal(mat,np.full(mat.shape,1.))
 
+  A_ref = asRef(mat.shape[0],mat.shape[1])
+  A_ref.fill(1.)
+  A_ref2 = asRef(mat.shape[0],mat.shape[1])
+
+  assert np.array_equal(A_ref,A_ref2)
+
+  A_ref2.fill(0)
+  assert np.array_equal(A_ref,A_ref2)
+  
+
 rows = 10
 cols = 30