Diane Rover received her B.S. degree in computer science from Iowa State University in 1984, as well as her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering in 1986 and 1989, respectively. She was a research staff member in the Scalable Computing Laboratory at the Ames Laboratory under a U.S-D.O.E. Postdoctoral Fellowship from 1989 to 1991.

In 1991, Rover joined the faculty of Michigan State University in the Department of Electrical Engineering as an assistant professor. From 1997 to 2000, as an associate professor, she served as director of the undergraduate program in computer engineering. She also served as interim department chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2000 to 2001. In 2001, Rover returned to Iowa State as a professor in computer engineering. During 2003–2004, she was appointed associate chair for undergraduate education in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Since 2004, she has served as the associate dean for academic programs and budget in the College of Engineering.  Her administrative oversight includes Engineering International Programs and Services. Her teaching and research has focused on the areas of digital logic design, hardware/software systems, reconfigurable hardware, integrated program development and performance environments for parallel and distributed systems, visualization, performance monitoring and evaluation, and engineering education. Projects at Iowa State have included software systems for performance visualization, system-level design techniques and tools for embedded systems, models for interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and curriculum integration.