Construction of S-box in AES In my introductory cryptography class. There is a line describe the construction of S-box in AES
 "The S-box of AES is constructed by combining a function $h(x)=x^{254}$ defined on $GF(256)$  with an invertible affine transformation." 
However, when I look into the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) document , I can not find where the $h(x)=x^{254}$ is used. I understand that S-box is constructed by $a_{i,j}\to a_{i,j}^{-1}(mod\,x^8+x^4+x^3+x+1)$ and subsequent affine transformation. Does $h(x)=x^{254}=x^{-1}$ is used during the inverse proccess?
In the field $GF(2^8)$, $x^{254} = x^{-1}$ (except for $x=0$, as $0^{-1}$ doesn't exist; for AES, that's treated as 0), and so it's two ways of describing the same thing.

When we talk about AES, we typically use the $x^{-1}$ nomenclature; for whatever reason, your class decided to go with the $x^{254}$ one.