Want to learn the art -- and science -- of iPhone application development? If so, a new course from the University of Washington might be for you.

The UW Extension plans to offer for the first time beginning this fall a 1-year certificate program in iPhone and Cocoa Development, yet another sign that the mobile computing device continues to gain steam.

Hal Mueller, a local software developer, will be teaching the first course. I asked Mueller, who specializes in mapping and navigation applications, why there was a need to create a course designed for Mac and iPhone app developers. (Especially in Microsoft's backyard).

"The iPhone is the biggest  personal technology change to come along in years, but programming for the iPhone is different," explains Mueller. "It's done in Objective-C, a new language for most people, and the approach that Cocoa takes to library 
implementations is not what most programers are used to."

As to doing the course in Microsoft's backyard, Mueller said that Seattle always has had an active based of Apple developers. In fact, a number of former Microsoft developers (Innerfence's Derek Del Conte and Ryan Johnson, Zumobi's John SanGiovanni and Zero260's Damon Danieli) have quickly come on to the iPhone development scene.

"We have a very lively Mac development program in the Seattle area, both independent developers and small to medium-sized companies," said Mueller, who also sits on the new program's advisory board. "All of those developers were in on the initial rush of iPhone development last spring and summer. We've seen, also, a brand new generation of  local iPhone developers who are coming to the platform from other technology backgrounds."

The new program is broken into three 10-week classes. The first will focus on Mac development and introduce developers to Objective-C.

The winter course will focus on iPhone app development and the spring course will be geared toward advanced networking,  graphics and database techniques.

Each course costs $705, with informational meetings slated for August 4 and August 26. 

Apple this week said that more than 1.5 billion iPhone apps have been downloaded in the past year and that developers have created some 65,000 apps.

So, based on those numbers and the buzz around the iPhone, we're guessing there will be some serious interest in this course.

John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow him on Twitter @johnhcook.