Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, České vysoké učení technické v Praze – ČVUT in Czech) is one of the largest universities in the Czech Republic and the oldest institute of technology in Central Europe. It was established in 1707 by the Emperor Joseph I.. According to the THES-QS World University Rankings for the year 2010, the CTU is the world's 121st best university in technology, was the 171st in 2009 and 228th in 2008 and is the 1st in the Czech Republic. Student clubs within the CTU are integrated in the Student Union. It has 27 members and covers wide range of free time activities. The Student Union also organizes social events for students through the year. Along with other research centres of the university, a high quality research is held at the Center for Machine Perception and the Gerstner Laboratory, both of which constitute the MIRACLE – Centre of Excellence. The centres participate in many EU and US funded projects with focus predominantly on computer vision and agent technologies.